Crosswalk
by BanditPonyta
Summary: The sequel to 'Stop Light.' After the incident at the intersection, Matt's life becomes rather difficult. Rumors, angry parents, more traffic accidents and Tai equals a good time. Rated T for language. Leave me a review!
1. The Grounding of Yamato Ishida

A/N: READ 'STOP LIGHT' FIRST! I don't recap it so if you are just picking this up without reading 'Stop light'… you will be confused. 'Stop Light' is a short bit of nonsense and it doesn't take long to read, so read it! Ok, I'm done with that.

Anyway…I LIVE! I guess I am writing stuff once a year now. LOL. I don't intend it to be that way. I wanted to finish my writing on another story before I tackled the rest of the 'Stop Light' series (Dear God help us all, it's a series now). I decided that instead of just continuing 'Stop Light' I would write its sequel. So here is 'Crosswalk.' Not as funny as 'Stop Light' unfortunately, but I just really wanted it to be written. Future chapters will be more humorous, I hope. So here we are, enjoy!

**Crosswalk **

The Grounding of Yamato Isihda

"Why aren't you picking up the phone?" Tai asked to no one in particular. He had been dialing and redialing Matt's cell number for the past three hours and despite his best efforts, he was beginning to worry about his friend.

Matt's father had picked Matt up from school earlier that day. Tai had never seen Mr. Isihda looking so angry. However, once he saw Matt's pitiful state, he had calmed down. They had been having a difficult time stopping the bleeding from Matt's hand and he had managed to bleed all over himself and Tai's jacket. Matt was then quickly ushered away by his father and Tai had not heard from him since. Matt should have been out of the emergency room by now, so why wasn't he picking up? He had even tried the house phone, but nobody was answering. After getting Matt's voicemail for the two hundredth time, Tai chucked the phone across the room and onto his bed. Kari's voice suddenly drifted into the room from the kitchen, where she was preparing dinner in their mother's absence.

"Just give it up, Tai. He'll call you when he can. Now come eat."

"Did you call TK?" Tai asked, ignoring her last comment.

"Yes, and he said Matt hasn't called him either. He said he would call me as soon as Matt contacts him."

"Well, why hasn't he called?"

"I don't know Tai. Come eat before it gets cold."

"I'm not hungry."

"Tai!"

Tai shut the door to his room. He heard Kari protest, but ignored her. _One more time_, he decided as he picked up the phone from his bed and punched in Matt's cell. It rang once… twice… three times and just as Tai was about to hurl his phone in frustration, the ringing stopped and a familiar voice sounded in Tai's ear.

"What is it Tai?"

"Matt!" Tai shouted gleefully into the phone. Matt sounded extremely pissed off, but Tai didn't care. "You picked up! Why haven't you been answering your phone?"

Suddenly Tai heard yelling on the other side of the line. Mr. Ishida was saying something that sounded angry. Matt answered back, sounding just as angry.

"It's Tai… I know what you said! I heard you before!"

Suddenly, Tai could hear Mr. Ishida loud and clear.

"You are being punished! You aren't allowed to be on the phone!"

"No! I need the phone!"

"Slacking off at school! Lying to me! Wasting time messing around with your friends! Give me the phone right NOW!"

"I'm not messing around!"

"Oh, so last Friday you were studying and not spending time with your friends playing stupid games?!"

"I was with TK! Since when am I not allowed to see my brother?! It's not like I see him all the time! It's not exactly like we live together, y'know?!"

"Don't you DARE start with ME, YAMATO ISHIDA!"

"I DIDN'T START THIS! YOU DID!"

Tai jerked his head away from the phone, as Matt reached a new decibel level.

"FINE! THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULD GO LIVE WITH YOUR BROTHER THEN!"

"MAYBE I WILL!"

There was a loud slam. Tai assumed Matt had just locked himself in his room. Half a moment later, Tai heard pounding that indicated Mr. Ishida was continuing the fight through the door.

"I'm not opening the door!" Matt yelled. Then there was a softer click as if another door was being closed. Then there was silence. Tai pressed his ear to the cell phone desperate to find out what had happened.

"Tai?" Matt asked shakily. Tai paused and took a breath.

"Yeah, Matt?"

"Sorry about that… you weren't supposed to hear any of that."  
"It's OK." Tai quickly assured him, "So… um… what's going on?" he asked hesitantly.

"I'm in my closet now so you shouldn't be able to hear him anymore."

"You're in your closet?"

"Yeah."

"O…K… Well, what happened?"

"My dad was pissed about the hedge clippers…"

"Yeah, I got that."

"…and he found out the other day that I failed that stupid history test we took last week…"

"You failed that?"

"Yeah."

"Sorry, I didn't know."

"It's OK." Matt sighed.

"So… how's your hand?" Tai asked trying to change the subject a bit.

"It has ten stitches in it."

"Wow, that's a lot. What about your head? How's that doing?"

"They put a staple in it."

"That… doesn't sound good." There was an uncomfortable pause. Matt shuffled his shoes around in the closet so he could sit comfortably on the floor. Tai heard him rustling about and wondered what else he should say. Matt broke the silence first.

"I'm going to have a scar on the back of my head… and on my hand…" he said quietly.

"Aw, you'll never be beautiful again," Tai said with a careful smile that nobody could see.

Matt snorted into the phone and Tai's smile broadened into a ridiculous grin.

"You're an idiot, Tai." Matt laughed.

"At least I'm not in a closet."

"Well, at least even with scars, I'll never be as ugly as you," Matt said rolling his eyes. Tai grinned.

"You just wish you had my good looks, Ishida."

Matt actually burst out laughing at this. Then it sounded as though he put his hand over his mouth to muffle it. Tai decided Matt had thought that was a little too funny so he decided to bring the conversation back to a more serious level.

"So… besides not being allowed on the phone… how else are you being punished? Are you grounded or what?"

Matt made a disgusted noise. "Yes, I am grounded. I am grounded for taking the hedge clippers without permission. I am not allowed to watch television or go on the computer or use the phone because I failed a test. I can't play in my band with my hand in bandages and I can't play video games with it. Dad basically said that I wouldn't be doing anything after it was healed either, because after he gave me all of this punishment I called him an asshole."

"Matt!" Tai exclaimed in surprise.

"Dad and I have been arguing lately… he's been upset with work and I… I have just been feeling pissed at him lately."

"Wow," Tai exclaimed, "so how long are you grounded for?"

"He didn't give me a date. Though I think 'forever' was mentioned."

"I'm sorry Matt."

"It's fine. It's my fault. I shouldn't have called him that. I should have just taken the grounding and kept my mouth shut."

"So we're not going to be hanging out on Fridays anymore?"

"My dad works all day and most of the night. Of course we're going to be hanging out on Fridays. You just have to leave before he gets home."

"OK, no problem. Hey, is he really going to take your phone away?"

"He's going to try."

Tai paused for a moment wondering if he should day what he was thinking…"Hey, that stuff he said about you going to live with your brother…"

"I don't want to talk about that," Matt answered quickly, but not angrily.

"Right… well, before he takes away your phone, you should call TK. I think he's been worried about you."

"Yeah, I will."

"Hey, Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"So when are you going to come out of the closet?"

"Good-bye, Tai." Matt said rolling his eyes.

"Bye Matt!" Tai said with a large grin. He clicked his phone off and sat it down on his bed again. Tai's grin faded and he furrowed his brow into a look of worry. He suddenly shook his head as if trying to shake the concern out of it. Matt would be fine, he was always fine, Tai thought with conviction. With that, he let his grin spread across his face again as he happily headed out of his room to eat a cold dinner.

To be continued….

A/N: I need to stop writing these things at four in the morning. I'm so tired. Anyway, I was concerned that some readers may think Matt's father is a bit too mean. But if you have ever been a teenager and you have ever had a parent flip out on you then you will understand this perfectly.

At the point that Tai hears Matt and his father argue, Mr. Ishida has been yelling for a while and he basically has lost rational thought. Trust me, I've seen it happen. Your parent freaks over one thing and then all of a sudden everything you've done wrong is thrown in your face and your being punished for ALL of it. Mr. Ishida is not perfect, usually he's easy on Matt, but…. Well we'll get into more of that later. Ok, I'm going to sleep now.


	2. Stop and Listen

A/N: Hmmm…. Yeah, four reviews is enough to continue this insanity.

Stop and Listen 

Kari's cell phone rang and she left Tai at the dinner table to go answer it. Tai knew it was TK calling her, because as soon as she saw the display she walked into the other room. Tai could still hear her through the walls of the apartment. Her voice had hit a higher pitch; it was a high, bubbly, I'm-so-happy-_he's_-calling-me voice. Tai rolled his eyes and shoved his dinner around on his plate with his fork. Kari always said that her and TK were only friends, but sometimes Tai wondered…

Suddenly, Kari's voice dropped a level in cheerfulness and it sounded as if she was talking seriously about something. Tai stopped playing with his food and strained his ears trying to catch a few words. Kari's conversation had reached an even lower level and Tai knew that it was his older brother responsibility to eavesdrop on this discussion. He quickly got up and did his best to quietly tiptoe toward his sister's closed door. He reached the doorframe and leaned in cautiously. He heard a loud sigh and then the door he was putting his ear against was suddenly opened. At first Tai began to fall forward, but not wanting to fall on Kari, he pushed himself back, stumbled over his own foot and landed ungracefully on his butt. Kari had jumped, but didn't seem surprised to find him there. She stepped over his legs and made her way to the kitchen to clean up the dinner dishes. Tai tried to rescue his dignity and quickly stood up to follow her into the kitchen. She was washing a pan with her back to him when he came in. He cleared his throat to make his presence known.

"A-_hem_."

"Hmm?" she responded.

"So… what's going on with TK?" Tai asked folding his arms, trying his best to look the part of a respected older brother.

"Did Matt and Sora break up again?" Kari asked suddenly.

"W-what? Hey wait, I asked you something first."

Kari glanced back at Tai and he could see the worry on her face. Tai decided to answer her question first.

"I don't know. Matt and Sora have broken up and gotten back together so many times… I kind of… don't keep track anymore. Why are you asking anyway?"

"TK didn't know if they were. He asked Matt if Sora had tried calling him and Matt… I guess… got angry and said something about Sora that TK wouldn't repeat for me."

"Hmmm," Tai thought aloud, "Matt hasn't said anything about it… but that doesn't mean anything. I'll just ask him at school tomorrow."

"Well when you do, tell him he shouldn't say some things around TK. TK gets upset easily by that kind of thing."

"What? Are you his mother now?" Tai ducked as a sponge went hurtling towards his face. Tai laughed and then bolted out of the kitchen. He knew that Kari never missed twice.

* * *

The next morning, Tai was surprised to find that Matt was already standing at the stop sign. Usually it was only Izzy who got to the corner so early, Matt was usually last to arrive. However, there he was, looking moody with his arms folded, and there was Izzy, standing next to him looking uncomfortable. Matt and Izzy were friends, but there were times when they didn't mesh well together. For example, when Matt was being irrationally angry or upset. 

"Hey Izzy! Hey Matt!" Tai greeted them enthusiastically. Matt nodded briefly and then returned to looking gloomy. Izzy was feeling a bit more conversational.

"Good morning Tai, did you finish all your history homework?"

"What history homework?"

"Tai…"

"Aw, man… OK, well… I'll just do it during lunch. Can I borrow yours so I know what to do?"

"Tai, you're not copying me."

"It's not copying! It's just, what's it called… comparing and contrasting? Please, Izzy?"

"If you actually are able to finish it during lunch I will check it for you before class… no, that doesn't mean I'm going to do it for you." Izzy said as Tai's hopeful expression deflated.

"We're going to be stuck here forever."

Tai and Izzy both blinked in surprise. Matt had been completely silent up to this point.

"What did you say?" Tai asked without thinking.

"I said: _we're _going to be stuck here_ forever_."

"Unlikely…" Izzy began, but then trailed off when he caught Matt's glare.

"Someone has to stop eventually, Matt." Tai said carefully. Matt was obviously in one of his moods and Tai didn't want to make it worse.

"No, nobody has to stop eventually. I've been standing here for thirty minutes, nobody has even slowed down."

"Thirty minutes?" Tai asked, but Matt ignored him.

"The tree is in the way, nobody can see the stop sign, there's too many freakin' cars and they are never going to put a stop light here." Matt then kicked the stop sign and then folded his arms again.

"Matt," Tai spoke cautiously, "_Why_ have you been here for thirty minutes?" Matt only grunted in response.

"Matt?" Tai began again.

"Because that's when I was woken up and forced out of my house this morning."

"Why?"

"Because my father is insane and he wanted to make sure I was going to school before he went to work."

"Oh," Tai said, glancing at an uneasy looking Izzy. "OK, but…why…"

"Just drop it, Tai," Matt said giving his friend an annoyed look.

"Fine, I will," Tai said. Matt seemed less annoyed as he looked back at the traffic. "So what's up with you and Sora?"

Matt actually almost jumped in surprise. He blinked and turned to Tai with a genuine startled expression.

"What are you talking about?" Matt said as he reverted back to looking annoyed at the world.

"Kari talked to TK last night. She said TK mentioned something that you said, something that he wouldn't repeat to Kari."

"Then he shouldn't have said anything about it at all!" Matt spit out angrily. Izzy actually took a step back from Matt. Tai, however, took a step closer. Matt was upset, but Tai knew him well enough to know the difference between Matt's different levels of anger. He knew the difference between the angry and hurt Matt, and the angry and in danger-of-hitting-things Matt. Right now, Matt was upset, but Tai knew he hadn't reached the level of punching people yet.

"Come on Matt. TK tells Kari everything. You know that. She actually wanted me to scold you, she doesn't like the idea of you upsetting him." Tai smiled, hoping his friend would find their siblings' antics amusing. Matt thought about this for a moment and then nodded slowly at him, which Tai knew was meant as an apology for snapping earlier.

"So," Tai started, smiling in an attempt to spread cheer, "You and Sora broke up or what?"

"We're not talking… so, yeah, we broke up."

"I'm sure things will work out."

"Not this time," Matt grumbled looking at the pavement.

"Why not?" Tai asked confused. Matt and Sora tended to break up about once a month. Usually, she said it was because he was being arrogant and he said it was because she was being psychotic. They always ended up back together again though.

Matt looked at Tai and then gave Izzy a death glare.

"Ask Izzy, he knows," and then Matt turned away. Tai looked curiously at Izzy. He thought it must be some kind of joke.

"OK… Izzy? Why did Matt and Sora break up?"

"It wasn't my fault!" Izzy blurted. Tai looked incredibly alarmed. Izzy quickly continued. "I just told her that Matt cut his hand with the hedge clippers! That's all! Then she was upset and she said he was immature and doing things just to avoid spending time with her and all of this other irrational stuff! I tried to assure her that he didn't do it to avoid her and she just became more upset. She said, if he was a real man he would have told her herself and not just send me to do it. I told her Matt didn't send me! Matt's in the hospital! She was irrational!" Izzy was talking very fast and he paused to take a breath. "The next thing I know she told _Mimi_ and Mimi's going around the school telling everyone that…" Izzy trailed off. Tai however, was intrigued.

"Telling everyone… what?" he asked.

"I am unsure. I think in the beginning it was just that Matt cut himself, but that turned into the rumor that he actually _cuts_ himself. Then some people turned it into he tried to actually kill himself and that's why he's in the hospital and needed stitches." Izzy was gasping for air. "Matt, I already apologized I don't know what else to say."

There was silence as Izzy tried to catch his breath and Tai took in everything that he had heard.

"Everyone knows Mimi's a gossip, why would Sora have told Mimi? Why would she want the whole school to think you're suicidal?"

"Because she's a crazy bitch. Which is what I said before and is what TK wouldn't repeat to Kari last night."

"OK, good…to know… I guess," Tai said slowly, "So the school thinks you cut yourself… what? Like in those bad after school specials?"

Matt was about to smack his palm to his face, but stopped when he realized it was his bandaged hand. "Yeah, kind of like that, Tai."

A large truck rumbled past as Tai took another moment to understand what was happening.

"So, when did you find out that Sora did this?"

"She called right after I talked to you, we had an argument. She thought it was dumb of me to hurt myself and get in trouble over it. She thinks I did it because I don't care about our relationship. She said she wasn't going to talk to me anymore. I said that I would be glad to never talk to her again. Then I realized that I had about ten messages from Izzy saying that there are all these rumors going around the school." Matt looked at Izzy. Izzy stared at the ground looking as if he wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Tai caught Matt's eye and gave him a pleading look. Izzy didn't deserve to have Matt so angry with him. Tai tried to convey this thought to Matt using his best puppy dog eyes. Matt rolled his eyes, but nodded.

"It's not your fault Izzy. I shouldn't have been so angry with you," Matt wasn't the best at apologizing, but he meant it when he did. Izzy looked up and smiled sheepishly. Matt smiled back. Then Tai burst out laughing.

"What's wrong with you?" Matt asked.

"Nothing! Friends forever! Group hug!" Tai chattered, laughing the whole time.

"Shut up, Tai, and don't touch me."

Tai just laughed louder. Across the street they could hear the bell chime, signaling the beginning of school.

"Oh good, we're going to be late," Tai said with a large smile spreading across his face.

"Dad will kill me if I'm late. We're just going to have to run across and hope for the best," Matt said readjusting his bag on his shoulder. The three got ready to run across the street.

"Hey Matt," Tai said suddenly, "We should both be late and walk in together. I think that might help your rumors."

"Help them? Oh, you mean help make more of them, right?"

"Yeah, you're a bit slow today, Ishida."

"Shut up, Tai."

With that the three friends ran across the street, yelling and dodging cars and curses from irritable drivers the whole way.

To be continued…

A/N: I had a lot of fun with this. I don't know why, it was just so fun to write. Sorry everyone, this took for freaking ever. I've had real life problems recently.

Anyway… what was I going to say… oh yeah, I'm not trying to make Sora seem evil. I'm just trying to approach this from a boyish perspective (guys don't seem to understand girls most of the time)… and I have weird anger issues towards people with romantic relationships (LOL). This is just a friendship fic by the way, so if I have any Taito fans out there hoping for something more to develop, I'm telling you now that it's not going to happen. Sorry guys, I like them as friends.

**Believeintrust**: Thanks!

**RekkaKouyuu**: Thank you. I'm glad you didn't have to wait a year for this part.

**Cloud Wolf**: Thank you. I am glad you thought it was funny. I did too, but when I reread it, I thought some people might think he sounded a bit harsh. I'm glad we may have the same level of thinking.

**Little Lommy**: -blushes- Thank you so much. The fact that you liked my characterizations means a lot to me. Thanks again.


	3. Look Both Ways

A/N: Yeah…. Three reviews…. That's enough to make me continue.

**Look Both Ways**

Matt had been getting strange looks all day. As he walked down the hall he could feel the eyes of other students watching him and as he went past, he could hear them whisper frantically. He did his best to ignore it. It was easier when Tai or Izzy was around. Luckily he had his morning classes with Tai, but before lunch he found himself quite alone in his writing class. Throughout the whole class he could hear the whispers and, out of the corner of his eye, he could see the gestures made in his direction. He also heard a few notes going around the room, which he was confidant contained some new rumor about him.

When the bell chimed, signaling lunch, he hastily packed up his things and was about to bolt from the room when his teacher stopped him suddenly.

"Matt, wait just a moment," she said. Ms. Oshima was probably Matt's favorite teacher, but seeing as he was having the worst day of his life, he didn't feel like staying behind to chat with her. Once he gathered his things he waited patiently by her desk as the other students filed out. Once they were all gone, Ms. Oshima looked up and smiled at Matt.

"I just wanted to talk to you for a minute."

"Am I in trouble?" Matt asked flatly.

"No, Matt. You aren't in trouble."

"Good, because my dad would probably kill me if I was," Matt muttered. Ms. Oshima raised an eyebrow and Matt stared back emotionlessly.

"Well, Matt. I was just wondering if you're alright." At this, her eyes flicked to his bandaged hand and then back to his face.

"I'm fine." Matt said trying to control his rising irritation.

"Well I'm glad to hear that. I was just hearing things earlier that caused me to be concerned…"

"_Don't_ be concerned." Matt cut her off quickly, "and don't believe rumors."

"Matt, I didn't believe any rumors. I was just genuinely concerned about you."

"I'm _fine_. Now excuse me, if that's all you wanted to ask me, I need to go." Matt didn't wait for her to respond, he was already headed for the door. Ms. Oshima meant well, she was one of the kindest teachers at their school, but her concern just reminded Matt how much these rumors had spread. He was becoming very irritated with it all. He kicked over a trashcan in the hallway, not caring that there were people around and he was making a bit of a scene. Things were getting out of hand. He needed to find Tai and Izzy before he punched someone.

* * *

They were supposed to be eating lunch in their history teacher's classroom. However, Matt found that he wasn't very hungry, Tai was too busy trying to finish his forgotten homework and Izzy hadn't shown up yet. Luckily, nobody in the school actually liked history or their history teacher, so they were alone in the room. It was silent as Matt watched Tai frantically scribbling away trying to write enough to fill two pages.

"Matt did you do this assignment?" Tai asked hopefully.

"Oh yeah, I did it while I was in the emergency room and while they were stitching up my hand."

"Really?"

"No, Tai."

"Well, why do I have to have this done if you don't?" Tai asked, looking gloomily at his scribbled handwriting. Matt rolled his eyes.

"Tai, I was in the _emergency_ room. I get to turn my homework in late because I was bleeding profusely. You, however, were probably playing video games and you don't get to turn your homework in late just because you _needed_ to pass that last level."

Tai was quiet for a moment. "Geez, you're in a bad mood today." He said as he went back to writing. Matt was about to make a retort about having every right to be in a bad mood when Izzy burst into the room.

"Izzy! Thank goodness! I need help, I don't know what I'm writing anymore." Tai held up his paper and pencil in Izzy's direction. Izzy pulled a desk and chair over and sat down next to Tai, but waved him away as he tried to catch his breath.

"What? Were you running or something?" Tai asked. Izzy nodded, still gulping for air. He took a deep breath and turned to Matt.

"I just spoke with Mimi."

"What? Are you two eloping?" Tai asked, looking disappointed because Izzy wasn't looking over his homework.

"Shut up Tai," Matt said.

"Do you even know what that means?" Izzy asked curiously, looking at Tai with disbelief.

"Yeah, I heard it on TV. Well… no, I'm not one hundred percent sure."

"Izzy, what's going on with Mimi?" Matt said, trying to cut off Tai before he could give out more useless information.

"While I was hearing new rumors today so-"

"Oh! What new rumors?" Tai said grinning and forgetting about his homework.

"Tai!" Matt yelled.

"Well, I want to know!" Tai whined.

Matt gave Tai a scowling look. He was trying to make it absolutely clear that the rumors weren't anything to get excited about.

"Well there's um…" Izzy started, but then trailed off, looking embarrassed.

"What? What is it?" Matt asked, suddenly feeling alarmed.

"You were late today… and you and Tai arrived at the same time…"

"No…" Matt said, a feeling of dread suddenly coming over him.

"Well, It's just that people are saying that… er… you broke up with Sora for Tai." Izzy actually shut his eyes at this as if waiting for Matt to punch him in the face.

"Yes!" Tai punched his fist in the air, "I never get to be in rumors! This is great! It's like being famous!"

"Who started it?" Matt asked, ignoring Tai's inappropriate glee.

"Well, that's why I was talking to Mimi. I thought she had gone too far, but she actually said that it wasn't her. She said… well, she said Sora started that rumor."

Matt stood up so quickly his chair toppled over. Tai quickly switched into a more serious gear.

"Matt, wait. Don't do anything dumb," he said quickly. Matt turned away from him as if he hadn't heard him and then, as if making a quick decision, he began to walk briskly from the room.

"What are you doing?!" Tai called after him.

"I'm done dealing with this crap!" Matt shouted as he shut the door harshly behind him. Tai quickly got up to follow him.

"Matt, wait!" He called, stumbling over his chair in his hurry. He was half way to the door when he turned back, ran back to his chair and handed his paper to a bewildered Izzy. "Look this over for me. I'll be right back." Tai then ran from the room.

* * *

Matt stormed through the halls opening doors at random and then glaring inside. When he saw that what he was looking for wasn't inside, he would angrily shut the door. Quite a few students had begun to poke their heads out to watch him. It was official: Yamato Ishida had finally lost his mind. Finally, Matt opened a door and found what he was looking for.

Sora was sitting on the other side of the room with Mimi. She looked startled to see Matt suddenly at the door.

"We need to talk," he said pointedly. Either Matt didn't notice that Sora was sitting in a room full of people or he didn't care. Sora looked around at everyone and then stood up.

"Fine." She then walked briskly out of the room following Matt as he walked further down the hall. A lot of excited chatter could be heard from the room they had just left.

They had only gone a little ways down the hall before Sora stopped walking.

"I'm not going any farther," she said bluntly. Matt whirled around to look at her.

"Fine," he said. " I was just trying not to encourage gossip, but I guess you don't care about that."

"I thought you weren't speaking to me anymore. Isn't that what you said before?" Sora gave Matt an icy stare. Matt tightened his good hand into a fist.

"What is wrong with you?!" He shouted. At this point, many students were beginning to creep into the hallway in order to get a better view of what was going on.

"_Nothing_ is wrong with me!"

"Nothing? Nothing is wrong with you? Oh, OK. So then it's not true that you're spreading rumors about me… and not just about me, but also about _Tai_? I thought you and Tai were friends. Some way to treat a friend."

"Oh, like Tai even cares. Stop trying to make it like it's about him," Sora snapped back. At this point Tai had actually appeared at the other end of the hallway, but he had stopped upon seeing Matt and Sora arguing in the middle of the hall.

"You're the worst person I've ever met."

"You're an arrogant jerk!"

"You're psychotic! If I had known you were this crazy I _never_ would have gone out with you!"

"Well, rumor has it that you don't prefer girls anyway."

"STOP SPREADING RUMORS!" Matt exploded, "YOU'RE THE ABSOLUTE WORST! STOP RUINING MY LIFE, YOU CRAZY BITCH!"

Sora slapped him hard across the face. He was almost thrown off balance, but he came back quickly and slapped her right back with his good hand. A resounding gasp was heard from the surrounding students. For a moment, Sora stood with her head turned slightly, completely bewildered. She regained herself.

"You're ruining your own life, Yamato Ishida," she said venomously and then walked away. Matt just stood there, breathing hard, all of the anger he had been feeling slowly dissipating and being replaced with the fact that Sora had slapped him… and he had slapped her right back. He felt a tugging on his sleeve and heard a familiar voice.

"Come on, Matt. Let's go." Tai grabbed Matt's arm in an attempt to lead him away. Matt, in a slight daze, followed Tai out of the hall and back to their history room.

* * *

The rest of the day had not been pleasant. The whispering was now almost constant. Some students didn't bother whispering.

"That's Yamato Ishida, him and his ex had a fight right outside my chemistry class!"

"She slapped him."

"Did you hear? He left her for a _boy_."

"Well, you know something is wrong when your boyfriend is prettier than you."

Matt slammed his locker shut, giving the people nearby an icy glare.

"Just let it go, Matt," Tai said. The two friends began to walk out of the building.

"_Why_ aren't you upset about this?" Matt asked. Tai actually paused to think about it.

"It's Friday."

"…What?"

"How can I be upset on a Friday? We get to play video games tonight and I don't have school until Monday."

"I'm being serious," Matt said shouldering his school bag. Tai sighed.

"Well… if I got upset about this… then both of us would be upset… and then, well, it would be pretty gloomy wouldn't it?" Tai said, tilting his head to the side.

"I guess so."

"You have to find the fun in this," as Tai spoke, a group of students walked by. Tai suddenly grabbed Matt by the arm. "Oh Matt!" He said too loudly, "of course I'll go home with you today! What's that? Your father's working? Then it will just be the two of us… all alone!"

The group of students became wide-eyed and hurried down the hallway. Matt had turned an interesting shade of red.

"You did _not_ just do that. I am so going to kill Taichi," He made a swipe at Tai's head. Tai ducked away.

"Yeah? Well, you'll have to catch me first." Tai then took off running towards the exit, laughing manically the whole way. Matt, finding himself in a weird place between being pissed off and amused, ran after him. _When I catch him, I'm going to laugh and then I'm going to beat him to a pulp_, he thought. He ran past Izzy, who was looking surprised.

"What in the world is going on?" Izzy asked.

"I'm going to kill Tai!" Matt called back as he ran out the door.

By the time Matt was out the door, Tai was already down the steps and at the corner, waiting for cars to stop so he could run across the street. This was the only point that Matt could catch him. Tai, though Matt didn't want to admit it, was faster than him and could easily outrun him. Upon seeing Matt begin to run down the stairs, Tai let out an unmanly scream and ran into the street. Cars honked, brakes squealed, people yelled obscenities and Tai laughed. Before the cars could pick up speed again, Matt took the opportunity to run across the street as well. He was halfway across when a van, not seeing him, sped through the crosswalk in front of him. He gasped and waved his arms in the air in some attempt to stop himself.

There was a flash of red and then everything went dark.

* * *

"Matt are you alright? Matt? Matt?" Tai…he sounded kind of frantic…

"Oh my God," Matt said without opening his eyes, "Did I just get hit by another van?" he asked weakly.

"Well… no… not exactly… you kind of… um…hit it by yourself."

"Matt, you ran into the side of the vehicle," it was Izzy's voice. Matt wondered when he had arrived there.

"I hit a van," Matt stated blankly. "Am I hurt?"

"Uh... no. Um, open your eyes Matt," Tai said sounding worried. Matt opened his eyes slowly.

"Well, is the… van hurt?" He asked as he carefully sat up.

"The van took off. I don't think it noticed that you ran into it," Tai said helping to steady Matt as he stood up.

"Oh, good," Matt sounded a bit dazed, "Tai could you…" Matt motioned to the back of his head, "… could you see if I'm bleeding?"

"OK, sure" Tai said, sounding nervous. " I don't see any blood… hey cool, is that your staple? Well, it didn't fall out, if that's what you're wondering."

"Oh, good," Matt said quietly. Cars had stopped to stare at them and a few students had gathered at the corner to watch. "My leg hurts," Matt said, taking a step forward.

"Yeah, I think you kneed the van pretty good," Tai said smiling slightly. His smile quickly vanished when Matt's knee wouldn't support his weight and he started to fall forward. Tai caught him by the elbow. "Here, why don't I help you? Izzy, can you grab his other arm?"

Izzy quickly complied and went to Matt's other side, taking a frim grip of his elbow.

"I can walk," Matt said stubbornly.

"Of course you can, but maybe Izzy and I should stay close to you, just in case." Matt couldn't help but notice that Tai suddenly sounded like he was talking to a small child. His head was aching and his knee was hurting quite badly. With a sigh, he decided to just let his two friends support him. They slowly moved out of the crosswalk and up onto the sidewalk. After a few moments, Tai looked at Matt worriedly.

"Izzy?" Tai asked. "Do you have a handkerchief?"

"What's the handkerchief for?" Matt asked numbly.

"Well, I didn't want to tell you while you were laying in the middle of the street, but I think you hit the van partly with your face because your lip is bleeding. I don't know if you bit it or what, but it looks gross."

Matt hadn't even realized it before, but his whole face was hurting as well as the back of his head. Izzy, who had been rummaging around in his coat pocket, produced a white handkerchief. Tai took it from him and pushed it against Matt's lip.

"Ow, I can do it myself," Matt said taking the handkerchief away from Tai moodily. The three began walking again.

"You should put ice on your knee when you get home," Izzy said. "It will decrease any swelling and help with pain. You should put some ice on your lip too."

"Thanks Izzy," Matt said, though it sounded muffled through the cloth.

"You totally owe him a new handkerchief," Tai said shaking his head.

"Oh, no it's no problem Matt-" Izzy began.

"Don't be that way," Tai interrupted. "If he bleeds all over something of yours then he totally owes you a new one."

Matt rolled his eyes, but then looked at the handkerchief and realized that he was indeed soaking it with his blood.

"Sorry," Matt apologized lamely, "I will get you a new one Izzy, alright?"

Izzy smiled kindly. "You don't need to worry about it Matt, I don't really mind."

Tai snorted loudly. Both Matt and Izzy looked at him with confused expressions.

"Well, _I_ mind! You still owe me a new jacket from the _last_ time you bled all over the place."

"Tai…shut up." Matt said rolling his eyes. Tai snorted again, but smiled slightly.

"Watch what you say Ishida, I'll let go right now and you can have fun limping home on your own."

Matt laughed and then immediately regretted it when his lip stung. Tai's smile grew wide.

"_Finally_ you laugh! I've been trying hard to get you to laugh all day."

"Yeah, sometimes I wish you wouldn't try so hard."

"You could just make it easier," Tai said with an almost serious expression.

"But then you wouldn't have the fun of running through intersections and watching me run into vans," Matt said with a smile.

"That's true."

To be Continued…

A/N: This was supposed to be shorter; we were already supposed to be moving along somewhere else in this fic. It just keeps going in a totally different direction. This fic has a mind of it's own! What have I gotten myself into? I need to stop writing these things at 5 in the morning. By the way I pretty much stole the scene between Sora and Matt slapping each other from a different anime. One million brownie points to anyone who can guess it.

Anyway, Sorry this took SO long. My grandmother passed away shortly after I posted the last part and to tell you the truth, I just didn't feel like writing anything for a while. It was only recently that I was inspired to continue this.

Anyway, thank you Cloud Wolf, Tails-Coyote-Carnivore, and Little Lommy for being spectacular, ultra-super special reviewers.


	4. Busted

A/N: Continuing! Sorry, this one takes a wee bit of a serious turn. I'll try to keep it light.

**Busted**

Eventually, Izzy parted ways with Matt and Tai, even though Tai had invited Izzy over to Matt's place with great enthusiasm.

"Come one Izzy! We're going to play Mega Monkeys 4!"

"I'm sorry Tai. I have a project that I need to finish."

"Aw, Come ooooooon."

"Don't do that Tai," Matt winced.

"Come _Ooooooooooooooooo-_."

"Seriously, stop that," Matt cut him off in mid whine.

To everyone's relief, Tai finally gave up trying to convince Izzy to come over and Matt and Tai soon found themselves walking in silence. Matt, trying to retain some dignity, was doing everything he could not to lean too much on Tai. This actually lead to things just going much slower, since Matt kept putting too much pressure on his leg, stumbling and then almost causing him and Tai to both fall over onto the ground.

Tai grabbed Matt by the arm after he had nearly caused both of them to stumble into a parked car.

"Is it really that horrible to have to rely on other people?" Tai asked looking upset. Matt didn't say anything, but allowed Tai to support him the rest of the way home. They struggled at the door, as Matt fumbled for his keys, trying not to fall over and while still holding Izzy's handkerchief to his lip.

As soon as they were inside Matt's apartment, Matt moved away from Tai and hopped on one leg over to the couch. Tai took off his shoes while he watched his friend try to maneuver around the coffee table. He began to lose his balance and ended up putting weight on his bad leg. He swore loudly. Tai rolled his eyes, sighed and then went into the kitchen. He began looking through the freezer as Matt collapsed onto the couch. Matt arranged the pillows so that one was under his aching knee and another one was behind his head.

"I think my lip stopped bleeding," He said, looking at the stained handkerchief. Tai came walking out of the kitchen, his arms full of things he had found in the freezer and refrigerator.

"Hey, is TK coming over?" Tai asked.

"Yeah, he has to bring his game system over because dad took mine away and locked it in a closet… or something, I don't know."

"Aw man, I have to _wait_ before I get to play anything? That sucks. Here," Tai placed an ice pack on Matt's knee. "Hey, do you think you're going to have to go to the hospital for that?" He asked as he put the rest of his items on the coffee table.

"I think it's just a sprain. It'll be OK. I'll just stay off of it this weekend."

"If you say so. Here." Tai shoved an unwrapped Popsicle into Matt's mouth.

"Mmmf!" Matt grabbed the Popsicle. "What are you _doing_?" he choked.

"It's for your lip. You should put ice on it and Popsicles are the best way to do that. Plus it's grape flavored."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's purple isn't it?"

"No, not that. I mean, it's really OK to use Popsicles instead of ice?"

"Yeah. Besides, you guys don't have any ice cubes in your freezer. Lots of empty ice trays, but no ice." Tai got up again and headed for the kitchen. "Do you want anything to drink, gimpy?" He called back.

"Yeah, water actually… and could you get me my painkillers? They're on top of the microwave."

"You on painkillers now? I definitely have to tell Mimi."

"They're prescribed for my hand and no, don't you dare tell Mimi or anyone else at school. That's all I need are rumors saying I'm addicted to pills now too."

There was a pause as Tai filled a glass with water from the tap. "I think I actually already heard that one today… or that might have been heroine. I can't remember."

"Great, just great."

Tai wandered back into the room, holding a glass of water and a pill bottle. He handed the bottle to Matt. "Here, I could never open those child lock things."

Matt took the bottle from Tai and opened it easily. "OK, Master pill-bottle-opener, I'm going to be counting those to make sure you aren't overdosing."

"Whatever, Tai." Matt said as he popped the pills into his mouth and then took a drink of water. Suddenly the phone rang, which caused Matt to jerk and choke on his water.

"Ackpff! It's my dad!" He said, frantically putting down the glass of water, spilling half of it in the process. He then seemed to come to the realization that he wasn't going to get to the phone quickly enough. "Tai! Hand me the phone. I have to answer before it goes to voice mail or I'm dead."

"Are you serious?"

"Tai!"

"Fine! Here, here," Tai quickly grabbed the portable phone and tossed it to Matt. Matt, who was busy putting down his Popsicle with his left hand and was unable to catch anything in his right hand, didn't react quickly enough and the phone hit him directly in the mouth. Matt let out a string of curse words; each with Tai's name attached to them in some way. After he realized he hadn't started bleeding again, he recovered and picked up the phone.

"Don't you say a word," Matt said to Tai as he clutched the phone. "If he finds out you're here, he'll kill me."

"OK, whatever."

"Tai…" Matt said in a warning voice.

"OK, OK! Just answer it already."

Matt clicked the phone's answer button and then slowly put the receiver to his ear. When he spoke, it was slow and deliberate and he kept a finger near his mouth to make sure he wasn't bleeding.

"Hello… Yes… I didn't answer right away because I was on the other side of the room," Matt gave Tai a warning look as if he could sense that Tai was about to say something. Tai, annoyed by only being able to hear one side of the conversation, sat down on the floor to take inventory of his food items on the coffee table. Matt's conversation continued.

"I know… I understand… Yes, sir… No… No, I wasn't being a smart ass…. Right, I will… I said I will! I'll do it. It's just history stuff…" Matt sighed, shut his eyes and put his head back. Tai studied him for a moment and then began stacking his frozen items on top of each in order to make a tower. "What? Yeah, I know I'm not allowed to watch TV… I'm going to start my homework as soon as I get off the phone… It's not sarcasm, it's the truth…No, that wasn't sarcasm either…"

Tai was soon out of stackable items and upon seeing his tower's completion he raised both arms into the air and mouthed words of victory. However, his enthusiastic movement disturbed the delicate balance and the tower quickly fell over. A box of frozen fish sticks collided with Matt's water glass and sent water flying brilliantly in Matt's direction. Matt had opened his eyes in time to catch the action at the last moment and only had enough time to gasp as water splattered his shirt.

"Oops," Tai whispered as the glass hit the floor with a thunk. Matt sat up looking apprehensive and damp.

"That wasn't anything!" He blurted into the phone a bit too loudly. "I just dropped something! I can't hold onto stuff and talk to you at the same time… Right, I'll be more careful… Right, OK… OK… Bye," Matt hung up and gave Tai a disbelieving look.

"You are unbelievable, you know that?"

"I know. Did you see how tall that tower was?"

"What are you…? I'm not talking about _that_!"

"OK! OK! I'm sorry, sheesh," Tai put his hand on the table and flicked some of the water in Matt's direction. Matt leaned back trying to avoid it, but didn't have much of a chance.

"What is wrong with you?" He hissed, putting the phone down on a dry spot on the table. Tai looked at Matt quite seriously for a moment. He stared as if looking for something in Matt's face. Annoyed, Matt glared back. Tai broke the gaze and let out a loud sigh.

"Aw man, you're back in your mood again! Geez, what do I have to do to bring you out of it for more than five minutes? I already gave you a Popsicle. I don't know what else to do." Tai picked up one of the boxes from the coffee table. "Do you want an expired chicken potpie?"

"No," Matt said looking away from Tai. Tai frowned and folded his arms across his chest.

"OK, look. This is my last resort. I know you hate it, but you're just going to need to talk to me. Seeing that you're a lot more pissed off then usual, and I can't bring you out of it, you're just going to have to tell me what's going on, because I don't know what I'm not getting."

Tai paused, but Matt continued not to look at him. Tai continued.

"I know your dad grounded you and you can't do anything because you're grounded and your hand is hurt and you're fighting with your dad and the rumors at school are bothering you and… what? I don't know what else. Why do you care so much? You won't be grounded forever. Your hand won't be in stitches forever. I'm sure you and your dad will stop fighting eventually and the rumors will go away soon. Well… maybe not soon… by the time we graduate maybe. But who cares about that? Come on Matt, why can't you just let it go and be happy?"

"I'm not like you, Tai," Matt said, his voice slightly muffled by the cushion he was speaking into.

"Yeah, I know. You said that before…. All right, look, forget the happy crap. You're the way you are and I shouldn't try to ask you to be different. I'm sorry. Look, just tell me: Is there something else bothering you that I didn't mention? Because I'm having a hard time getting you out of this mood you're in and I can't help but think that I'm missing something," Tai put both hands on the table in front of him and waited. After a moment, Matt turned his head slowly and looked up at the ceiling.

"…Sora." he said quietly.

"Ah no," Tai let himself fall onto the floor. There was silence then. Tai put his hand over his face and took a deep breath. Tai usually found that Sora was not an easy subject to discuss. "I guess I saw that one coming. So what about Sora exactly?" He asked quietly, sounding as if it was a wearisome subject. Matt didn't answer, so Tai decided to just continue talking. "Sora," he started, suddenly sounding as if he was addressing a classroom, "has been, as you put it, psychotic lately. She isn't always like that, but she's distrusting of people. I knew that… and I _thought_ you knew that before you went out with her… So now she's ruining your life and you guys had a crazy fight in the middle of school." Tai sat up and looked at Matt, who was now looking at him intently. "Look, Matt. In all seriousness, you are my friend and so is she. I'm siding with you on this because… well, because that's what I've decided to do. But I have to tell you, I know she hit you first and everything, but if you _hit_ her again, I will not be on your side ever again."

Matt opened his mouth as if to say something, but Tai ignored him, "I didn't say anything before, because if you are the person I think you are, you have already been beating yourself up over that. So I didn't need to bring it up, but now you're not talking to me and I went and brought it up. Great, see what happens when you make _me_ talk, because you're being stubborn. I end up saying a bunch of crap I don't want to say and everything comes out sounding so damn serious, I get just as depressed as you are. Congratulations, you suck the fun out of life. Now, I'm sorry, for knocking your water over and getting your shirt wet. I know it's the end of the world, but I hope you can find a way to forgive me. Now eat your freaking Popsicle because it's melting all over the stupid table and I can see you stupid lip swelling up. Do you want this freaking chicken potpie or what?" Tai was out of breath as he held the potpie up. Matt stared in silence for a moment, but then shook his head.

"Damn, Tai," he said quietly. There was a pause as Tai shut his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Sorry," Tai whispered as he put the frozen dinner down, "I didn't mean to talk so much. It's just… you haven't been saying anything at all lately… and it's just hard to be the only one talking…"

"I'm sorry Tai," Matt cut him off, "I've been edgy and... and overreacting. I shouldn't take it out on you... You are my best friend… I will talk to you, I swear. Today was just hard for me… It was just… hard." Matt looked at Tai as if unsure that his apology was sufficient. Tai however just beamed.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sorry too. You should be allowed to feel however you want. I would rather see you feeling sad and at least know it's genuine, then see you trying to pretend to be happy when you're not. Y'know? Don't worry about anything." Tai waved a hand in the air, "You can talk to me whenever you feel like it. I'll just wait until then."

There was a pause, as Matt seemed to take Tai's words to heart. He looked at Tai and smiled. "I… I'll try some of that happy crap now."

Tai snorted and began gathering up his food items. "Finish your Popsicle first, loser."

* * *

It wasn't long before TK showed up.

"Matt! What happened to your _face_? Whoa, what happened to your leg?! Oh my gosh! Why are you so hurt? You didn't get into a fight did you? Matt!"

"TK calm down."

"Your lip is so swollen… Why is your shirt all wet?"

"It's from his tears. Your brother cried when he saw his deformed lip," Tai said as he began looking through TK's bag for the game system. TK looked confused, Matt looked slightly alarmed.

"Is it really that bad?" Matt asked as he reached to touch his lip with his hand.

"Yeah," Tai said nonchalantly, "Your chin is bruised too, but I didn't want to tell you about that… serves you right for trying to make out with a moving vehicle. TK, you did bring both controllers, didn't you?"

TK look confused and looked at Tai and then at Matt. Matt sent Tai a dirty look that Tai didn't even receive because he was so busy hooking up the system.

"Wait…what does he mean…? Make out…? I don't… what?" TK looked confused. Matt rolled his eyes and then filled his younger brother in on all the details. When he was done, TK gave him a disapproving look.

"Wow," Matt said, "and I thought dad was the best at giving that look."

"Matt, why would you just run into the street like that?"

"Tai ran in first! I was following him!"

"You were following Tai into traffic?" TK raised an eyebrow. Matt realized that this look was taken from their mother, but he decided not to point that one out.

"Well when you say it like that, it sounds like the dumbest, most idiotic thing in the world."

"Yeah," TK said his expression softening. Tai looked up from his game.

"I only caught part of that. Was I just insulted?"

"No," Matt said quickly and TK let a grin began to creep onto his face. TK looked back at Tai and smiled.

"Sorry, Tai. It wasn't on purpose."

"Whatever. Get over here and play this game with me so I can kick your butt and then rub it in your face."

"OK, I will." TK said and looked back at Matt. "Do you need anything?" He asked. Matt shook his head.

"Nah, I'm fine. Go kick Tai's butt for me."

"Right!" TK went over to the TV, grabbed a controller and the game began.

* * *

Matt watched the two play games for about an hour, but soon found he was falling asleep. Something about having them both there with him made his mind peaceful. It was easy to forget about all his problems as he watched Tai try to distract TK in an effort to make him lose.

"Why are you so good at this game? You've been taking pointers from Matt, haven't you!?" Tai said sounding betrayed. Matt was finally at peace, the day was ending and he wouldn't have to deal with school for a few days. Everything was as it should have been. He could just let himself fall asleep on the couch.

Suddenly everything changed when he heard a key hit the lock on the door. Matt shot up and found he was paralyzed. His father was home early. _Why? He never gets home early!_

TK turned off the television and stood up, straightening his shirt and then kicking the controllers out of sight. Tai stood up looking frantic.

"Busted," Tai whispered. The door began to open. Tai let out a gasp ran backwards, turned, jumped over Matt's legs and threw himself behind the couch. He landed with a loud thud and an "Ow!" that he quickly tried to muffle. Matt forced himself to stand, being careful not to put too much weight on his knee. Then their father appeared in the doorway, looking tired. He looked up and scanned the room. Matt looked uncomfortable as his father's eyes came to rest on him.

"What happened to you?" He asked gruffly. Matt shook his head.

"Nothing," he murmured.

"TK, why are you here? Didn't Matt tell you he's grounded?" Mr. Ishida put his workbag down on the floor. TK immediately jumped in.

"Oh, I know he's grounded. I didn't come here to see him. I came here to talk to _you_. I'm sorry, Dad. I thought you would be home by now. I thought it would be OK if I waited for you here, even though Matt is grounded." TK stopped and looked at his father with big eyes.

Matt looked at his dad and then he looked back at TK. He was stunned: TK didn't _lie_. TK was the good son, the one that did what he was told all the time. He was both of their parents' pride and joy. Matt looked again at his father, _there's no way in hell he's going to fall for that…_

"Oh, well... is there something wrong? What did you need to talk to me about?" Mr. Ishida said, loosening his tie.

_Holy crap_…Matt was in disbelief. 

"Well… I kind of would rather talk to you alone about it…" TK looked away, looking a bit uncomfortable. Their father suddenly looked a little uncomfortable as well.

"Oh…well… then… I can talk to you in the room, alright?" His father motioned to his bedroom. TK smiled.

"OK!" He then bounded past his dad and into his room. His father looked down at the floor for a moment and then his gaze went back to Matt.

"Go home Tai," Mr. Ishida said loudly. There was a moment of awkward silence that was followed by guilty rustling as Tai stood up from behind the couch. He grinned sheepishly at Mr. Ishida.

"Hello sir," He said in the most respectful voice he could.

"Go home Tai," Matt's father repeated opening the door wide. Tai stepped from his hiding place slowly.

"With all due respect… um, how did you know I was…?"

"Here?"

"Yeah," Tai said as he stepped near Matt and gave him a sympathetic look.

"You've been over here enough that I would recognize your shoes anywhere," Mr. Ishida motioned to the floor. Tai and Matt both looked embarrassed.

"Probably shouldn't have left those there," Tai said grinning nervously.

"And I could see your hair poking out from behind the couch too."

"Oh." Was all Tai could say. Matt put his face in his good hand. Tai however had stopped moving forward; he was staying by Matt's side as if afraid to leave him alone. There was a moment of silence as Matt's father stared at the two boys. Neither of them would look at him and neither one moved. Mr. Ishida gave up with a sigh.

"Look, I'm going to go talk to your brother. When I get back, he had better be gone," he motioned to Tai, "and you had better have an explanation for me about your face." He then turned and walked into his room. The door closed and Matt and Tai both let out a breath that they were holding.

"He wants an explanation about your face. Tell him you were born that way," Tai whispered. Matt rolled his eyes.

"Here, take the game stuff. He hasn't seen it yet. If he thinks we were just hanging out I might not be in that much trouble, but if he finds out you were playing video games, I'm dead. I'm serious, he might actually kill me." Matt was stuffing the game system into TK's bag. When he thought he had all of it, he handed it to Tai. "Here, take this. TK can figure out that you have it."

"Right," Tai took the bag and then slipped his shoes onto his feet. "I'm sorry Matt. Call me later and tell me what happened."

"I can't, he took my cell."

"Oh, right… well… figure out a way. I'll stand on my roof and we can do smoke signals or something."

"He might let me talk to TK later. You can call him and he can fill you in."

Tai nodded and went out the door. "Good luck," he called back from down the hallway. Matt nodded and shut the door.

* * *

It seemed like an eternity went by as Matt waited for TK and his father to come back out. The wait was driving him crazy so he limped around the house and tried to clean up any mess that Tai had left. He was in the kitchen straightening up when he heard his father's door open, and then his brother's voice.

"OK, Dad I just wanted to let you know."

"Thank you for telling me TK. I don't think it's something you should be worrying about though."

"Thanks Dad."

Matt limped out of the kitchen and looked at them. TK started to go into the living room, looking at the ground, but Matt made a coughing noise and TK looked up and caught his eye. Matt gave him a look trying to convey a message. TK understood, realizing that his game system wasn't there anymore.

"Right, well, I'm going to go." TK turned suddenly and headed back for the door. "Dad, can Matt walk me to the elevator. I know he's grounded, but it would just be for a minute."

Mr. Ishida looked at his young son for a moment. "Yeah, he can walk you."

Matt was surprised, but moved forward as quickly as he could.

"When you get back you can tell me why you're limping too," Mr. Ishida said. Matt slipped on his shoes and walked out with TK, not even glancing back once.

They had walked all the way to the elevator in silence. Once they were there, they stood staring at the up and down buttons. Matt cleared his throat.

"I didn't realize you could lie like that," Matt said quietly. TK folded his arms.

"Of course I can lie, I just usually choose not too… and it wasn't a total lie. I did need to talk to dad."

"What about?" Matt said pushing aside the new information that TK was a good liar.

"Well," TK looked uncomfortable.

"It really is something you can't talk about in front of me?" Matt felt hurt and it showed in his expression.

"No, that's not it." TK cut him off, before he could get upset. "It's just awkward… I mean, I need to tell you…" TK trailed off.

"What is it?" Matt asked concerned.

"It's about mom," TK said abruptly. Matt suddenly felt that he didn't want to know this information. When he didn't say anything, TK continued.

"Mom's been under a lot of pressure at work. She's really stressed right now. She's been worrying about everything. I guess she's been a bit…angry lately. Um, anyway, I don't know if you know, she's been calling dad up while he's at work and she yells at him and upsets him too."

"What is she yelling at him about?"

"Well, mostly… about you," TK looked at the ground, "She keeps asking about you and whenever he tells her something about you. Like, the thing with the hedge clippers, she gets mad and tells dad he isn't being a good parent. 'You need to set boundaries! How is he going to turn out without any boundaries?!' That's what she was saying earlier. I can't say anything about it to her because she says it's a thing between her and dad. But I don't think it's right! She complains about him a lot more than she used to. It's everyday now and I don't know what to say anymore… When I was talking to dad, I told him to stop taking her calls. That it wasn't worth it…. Even though that felt wrong to say, because... because she's my mom." TK was crying, but Matt wasn't even sure if he realized it.

"I'm sorry, TK," Matt whispered and he pulled his little brother into a hug and then TK really did start crying.

"I'm sorry, Matt." TK said into Matt's shirt.

"You don't have anything to be sorry about." Matt whispered.

Suddenly the elevator doors opened with a loud ding. Matt and TK both looked up to see Tai standing in the elevator.

"I've been riding this thing up and down waiting for you!" Tai noticed that TK was crying and he quickly became concerned.

"Crap, what did I miss?"

To be continued…..

A/N: Man this chapter was fun to write. I might have botched up Tai's character a bit, maybe I made him too serious? You tell me. Oh well, my fic, my Tai, I can do what I want with him.

I was supposed to write more, but it's 6:00am and I have been writing since 2am. I also like the ending as is. It's so cold, my fingers are freezing at the keyboard. I'm so tired.

Finals are upon me everyone, I probably won't get another chapter up until after them… and that's not until December 21. Then, let's face it, x-mas will be busy. So expect the next chapter a little bit after x-mas. Thank you to all my reviewers. Especially to **Little Lommy** who sent me a message when they were unable to leave a regular review. Your actions warm my heart. Thank you everyone. Now, leave me some more reviews, because I adore them.


	5. Midnight is Too Late to Call

A/N: Sorry, that took longer than I thought it would. Hope everyone had a good Christmas/new year's eve. Thank you to Little Lommy, Cloud Wolf and Tails-Coyote-Carnivore. Also, a special thank you to those who have put this story on alert; especially to Serenity984, whose digimon fanfiction was and is a great inspiration to me.

OK, this part picks up right where the last chapter leaves off.

**Midnight is Too Late to Call**

TK looked surprised at Tai's sudden appearance and he pushed himself away from Matt.

"It's nothing, Tai." TK wiped his eyes to remove any trace of tears. Tai raised an eyebrow in disbelief and looked at Matt. Matt gave him a nod that seemed to say: "I'll tell you about it later." Tai nodded back and then looked back at TK.

"Well, are you going to ride this elevator with me or what? I've been waiting forever."

"Yeah," TK said with a forced smile. He stepped into the elevator and turned to Matt.

"Matt, I was going to say, maybe you should try telling dad the truth about your face and your knee. It would probably be better than trying to come up with a lie."

"Maybe," Matt said. "TK, call me if you need anything. I think dad might let me talk to you."

"Yeah," the doors began to slide shut. "Bye Matt!"

Tai waved goodbye energetically at Matt from behind TK.

"Bye TK!" Matt called.

"Hey, what about me?"

"Shut up, Taichi."

"Hey TK, look at all the buttons!"

"Tai, don't!" TK shouted. The elevator doors shut. Matt stood for a moment, staring at the closed doors. He imagined that Tai had pushed all the buttons by now and that the elevator was going to be stopping at every floor. Matt sighed and turned to go back to his apartment.

"The truth…" he muttered under his breath.

* * *

_When you're a kid they say to tell the truth. Tell the truth and your parents will be so happy that you didn't lie, that they will let you off easy. Isn't that what all the moral television shows said when I was a kid? It's better to tell the truth than to lie? The parents would always be so grateful that they weren't lied to, that they would not punish the kid. _Matt had been sitting on the couch zoning out, but he tuned back into his current situation. 

"WHY WOULD YOU RUN INTO THE STREET? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? HOW COULD-"

Matt tuned back out. _Those bastard television shows totally lied to me._ Matt realized his father was looking at him. Apparently waiting for a response to a question that Matt hadn't heard. Matt blinked.

"Um…yes." He tried feebly. His father turned a shade of purple that he had never seen before. Apparently that wasn't the right answer. Mr. Ishida pointed a finger to Matt's bedroom door.

"Go… to… your… room." Each word was said as if it was taking all of Mr. Ishida's will power not to explode. Matt glared at his father. The last time he was sent to his room, it was when he was seven and it was because he had tried to microwave TK's favorite stuffed animal. Mr. Ishida returned the gaze, but seemed to regain a bit of composure.

"You are grounded for a month. No cell phone, no television, no Internet and _no_ friends over and if you step _one_ _foot_ out of line I will make it two months. Now go to your room and do your homework."

Matt narrowed his eyes.

"Yamato Ishida…" The saying of Matt's full name was a very serious warning. Matt stood up and then left the room as quickly. In order not to appear completely compliant he slammed his bedroom door as hard as he could.

"Matt!" His father yelled in warning, but that was it. The two didn't speak to each other for the rest of the night.

* * *

It was three in the morning and Matt lay awake in his bed staring up at the ceiling. He had been that way for a couple of hours. When his father sent him to his room like a little kid, Matt didn't do anything at first. He just sat around feeling pissed off at everyone. When he finally calmed down he actually did do his homework and he finished it all before ten o'clock. At one point his father had knocked at the door and told him that he should come eat dinner. Matt ignored him and eventually his father gave up. 

Matt decided to go to sleep around Midnight. He was actually feeling very tired. It had been a long, and generally crappy, day for him. However, he found himself unable to fall asleep. The moment his head hit his pillow his thoughts began to turn over the events of the day. School sucked, nothing he could do about that… his knee and lip hurt, nothing he could do about that either at the moment… His mother was acting emotionally unstable and inappropriate, that seemed to be a theme for the women in his life… She was the one irritating his father and causing him to ground Matt for a month… TK was feeling caught in the middle and breaking down in tears unexpectedly.

Matt sat up in his bed. "I can't take this anymore," he said out loud to his dark room. He got up and walked quietly to his door. Cautiously, he unlocked it and turned the knob. The door opened with a slight squeak. After making sure he hadn't been heard, he tiptoed to the cordless phone. He grabbed it quickly and then bolted back to his room as fast as he could with an injured leg. Once back at his door he stopped and listened for any movement from his father's room. He heard a loud snore. _Victory!_ Matt thought and then quickly shut his door.

His fingers were dialing the number before he could even really think about it. He pressed the phone to his ear and listened to it ring. By the third ring, Matt started to think that he wasn't going to answer. On the fourth ring, however, Matt heard a clicking and a rustling noise.

"Hello?" Tai's tired voice came over the receiver.

"Did I wake you up?" Matt realized this was a dumb question the moment after he said it.

"Mmmm… nah… m'wake now," Tai slurred.

"I…" Matt hesitated, suddenly feeling a bit foolish, "I can't sleep." Matt heard Tai sigh on the other line and then more rustling.

"Mmmm… k'hang on. I need to…" Tai's voice trailed off and it sounded like he was swearing very quietly. "I need to go… in living room."

Matt waited patiently, but was confused why Tai needed to go into his living room to talk on his cell. A moment later Tai's voice came back.

"Sorry, I didn't want to wake him up," Tai now sounded more awake.

"…What? Wake up _who_?"

"Um… TK. He's sleeping on my floor. Mom didn't like him sleeping on the couch… I guess because he's closer to Kari's room that way. Parents, go figure."

"Why?" It was one word. But with it Matt was asking: Why is _my_ little brother staying over at _your_ house? I already don't get to spend a lot of time with him and now he's actually spending his free time at _other_ people's homes? Why?

Tai took a moment to answer that loaded question. "I invited him to stay. He seemed kind of upset… and he said that he didn't actually want to go home, which I thought was weird. I figured it would be all right for him to stay over and I knew Kari wouldn't mind… what was he upset about anyway? He didn't really say."

"My mother," Matt said rolling his eyes.

"Oh."

"She's being fighting with my dad and being immature."

"What do you mean?"

Matt told Tai about his mother's behavior and how it was ruining his life. His mother was calling and upsetting his dad and by doing that she was upsetting TK. After he was finished, Tai remained silent for a moment.

"Well," Tai began, "Why do you think she's doing all that?"

"Because she's selfish and crazy, I don't know. I don't understand any of them."

"OK, now we're not talking about just your mom anymore."

"Sora is always saying how she loves it that I spend time with TK, but then the minute I postpone plans that I have with _her_ to spend time with TK, she freaks out on me. Then she cries and says I don't care about her and I don't care about the relationship… So I tell her she's being crazy and then she just gets bitchy and I can't stand her anymore. We break up, but then we just get back together because she promises to be better and I apologize for calling her insane. Then when I cut my hand open, she says that I did it on purpose? I did it on _purpose,_ Tai? Why would I do that on purpose? What does that even mean?"

Tai was a bit startled, he knew his friend might need to talk to someone, but he wasn't expecting Matt's walls to all come crashing down so quickly and for every emotion and thought to come spewing out all at one time.

"Wha… Matt, it's like three in the morning."

"I… I know it's too late to call…but I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about everything and I feel like I'm going to be… I don't know, like I'm being crushed or something."

"It's not too late to call… Midnight, midnight would be too late. Three is fine."

"I don't… I don't think that makes sense…" Matt furrowed his brow.

"It's late Matt, just go with it."

"Right."

"So, you were saying?"

Matt continued talking, he stretched out on his bed and just kept talking about every annoyance and anything else that popped into his head. There were times he realized he wasn't even sure what he was saying. He was really just rambling on about everything. However, Tai continued to listen, even though Matt was being difficult to understand at times. Matt would begin talking about one thing and then change subjects at random.

"I finished all my homework tonight. What the hell am I supposed to do with the rest of the weekend? I can't leave the house. I can't call anyone. I haven't done any laundry all week. The socks I wore today... were the same ones I wore yesterday. My face hurts…"

Most of the time, the subject was switched to Sora.

"I shouldn't have hit her back. I shouldn't have done that. Right in the middle of the hallway… I'm such an idiot." Matt smacked himself in the forehead.

"Yeah."

"Why are you agreeing with me?"

"Was I not supposed to?"

"I… You're supposed to be trying to make me feel better, Tai."

"Hitting her was a mistake. I know you won't ever do it again."

Matt sighed in exasperation. "Even when my parents used to yell at each other… Dad never hit mom. I really screwed up."

"You'll make it up somehow. You could try apologizing to her."

"I do love her." Matt said it quietly, almost as if he was falling asleep and not really paying attention to what he was saying. Tai was stunned for a moment.

"You must be really tired Matt. I don't think I have ever heard you say that."

"Do you think I'm going to become my father?" Matt asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?"

"Like… divorced and alone…"

"With a rebel teenage son cutting his hand open at a crosswalk?"

Matt laughed quietly. "Yeah, and running into moving vehicles."

"Now I know you're tired. You're not supposed to laugh at my jokes. You're supposed to say, 'shut up, Tai.'"

"Shut up, Taichi."

"My full name… ouch... You won't end up alone, Matt. I mean you'll always have me, at least. Friends forever and all that."

"Somehow, that's not very comforting."

"Deal with it. You're stuck with my friendship for eternity Ishida. Now if everything is OK and you're feeling a little less like being crushed, I think we should go to sleep. It's four twenty-three and I feel like I might just pass out on my couch here."

"Sorry for keeping you up."

"Yeah, well someday I might need to talk to you in the middle of the night and when that time comes, I don't want to hear any bitching from you. Got it?"

"Deal."

"Great. Good night, Matt. I know how much you need your beauty sleep… and with that lip you might need to sleep a couple of extra days."

"Well, no amount of sleep could help your looks, Tai."

"You're just jealous."

"Good night, Tai."

"Good night, Matt."

To be continued….

A/N: This chapter was just kind of…. like… fluff, nothing really happened in it and it wasn't very funny. I just wanted to give Matt and Tai a moment to talk, bit short, sorry about that. I'm sorry this took sooooo long. I was feeling, and still am feeling, slightly uninspired. You know what inspires me? Reviews. So if you want to help push me along, you can leave a review and totally make my day.

Oh, by the way, if you know what song lyric I stole the title from, I will give you 100 brownie points.


	6. Hold Hands

A/N: OK, I have never had so many people put one of my stories on alert. I am incredibly surprised and, quite frankly, honored. Thank you everyone, I am deeply touched.

WARNING: I don't want to say much, but if you have a really weak stomach, you might find parts of this fic not to your liking. It's nothing that bad, but you know… just to be safe…Skim read my little tummy troubled readers.

**Hold Hands**

TK left Tai's apartment on Saturday, promising that if he was able to get in touch with Matt, he would call Tai and update him on how Matt was doing. Tai promised the same, though he only planned on partially keeping that promise. Tai didn't tell TK about his phone call with Matt in the middle of the night, thinking it would only cause TK to worry unnecessarily.

The rest of the weekend passed at an excruciatingly slow pace. Tai tried to occupy himself with homework and video games, but most of the time he found himself staring off into space, bored out of his mind. Matt wasn't calling again, which was probably a good sign. If Matt had been trying to call Tai, then it would probably be because he was nearing some sort of breaking point. Tai didn't really feel like talking to a frustrated-with-the-world Matt, but it still would have been nice to know how he was doing. TK hadn't called either… and the interesting thing about that was that he usually called Kari at least twice a day. By Sunday evening, the atmosphere in Tai's apartment was unusually apprehensive.

"You know… you could just call him."

"What are you talking about Tai?" Kari had been sitting on the couch gazing distractedly into space. Tai came and sat down on the other side of the couch.

"TK, you could just call him. It's better than moping around."

"I am _not_ moping around."

"You're not? Then why are you being so quiet… and moody?"

"I am not being moody!" Kari crossed her arms over her chest, looking appalled.

"Sure you aren't."

"Believe it or not, my happiness doesn't depend on someone calling me. If you're so worried, why don't _you_ call him?"

"I already did. He's not answering."

"Yeah, I know. I already tried," Kari said softly. She slouched down into the couch, looking troubled. Tai reached over and pulled her hair.

"Ow! Tai! What are you doing?" She slapped his hand away and glared at him. Tai grinned broadly.

"I'm bored." He then flicked her in the arm.

"Stop that! What are you seven years old?" He grinned and flicked her arm again. "Tai, I swear if you don't stop that-" Kari was cut off when Tai tugged her hair again. "That's it!" She reached over and grabbed a handful of Tai's hair and pulled as hard as she could.

"Ahhh!" Tai cried in protest. He attempted to free himself from her grip, but her fist wouldn't budge.

"I was kidding! Let me go! I'm sorry!" He said frantically. Kari released him with a smug expression on her face. Tai rubbed his scalp and pouted. Eventually, Kari laughed.

"Don't be such a baby, Tai." She giggled.

"The things I do for you." Tai said rolling his eyes. Kari stopped giggling.

"What are you talking about?" She asked in confusion.

"I was trying to distract you to make you feel better and then you try to rip my hair out of my scalp." A slight smile appeared on Tai's face. Kari huffed.

"You don't know anything." Kari then quickly smacked Tai in the face with a decorative couch cushion. She then stood up before Tai could retaliate and walked out of the room. She had her arms folded in an apparently dignified fashion and Tai heard her mutter something about "immaturity."

Tai stretched out on the couch that he now had all to himself. He propped his head up on the cushion that Kari had attempted to beat him with and let out a sigh.

"I wonder if it's possible to die of boredom." Tai wondered allowed. Tai stared at the ceiling thinking about his friends… Sora wasn't really talking to him… Matt was grounded for eternity… Izzy was… doing whatever Izzy does… TK seemed depressed, which was freakily uncharacteristic of him. Tai let his thoughts wander into nothingness. Suddenly he felt someone shaking him.

"Tai? Why are you sleeping on the couch?"

Tai opened his eyes, not even realizing that he had dozed off. His mother had come home and was now looking at him with concern.

"What time's it?" Tai slurred.

"It's nine o'clock. Are you feeling alright?" The concern was evident in her voice.

"I'm fine." Tai immediately brightened to reassure his mom. "Just tired I guess. I'm going to go to bed early I think." Tai slipped off the couch and tried to look as if he didn't have a care in the world as he wandered off to bed. Had he been feeling better he might have even skipped cheerily, but that might have been overdoing it. The truth was, he did feel very tired, and since that was very unlike him, he actually was a little bit freaked out. "Worrying about other people really takes a lot out of you," he mumbled with a yawn. Tai plopped down on his bed and fell asleep without even changing into his pajamas.

* * *

Tai woke up an hour earlier than usual. He looked at his digital clock with wonder. He wasn't the kind of person that woke up without an alarm… or without people yelling at him to get out of bed. "Maybe I somehow crossed over into another dimension… a dimension where I go to sleep early and go to school early and get good grades," Tai thought aloud. He then noticed he hadn't changed out of his clothes from yesterday. "It's the freaking Twilight Zone or something." He quickly got up to look at himself in the mirror. "At least I _look_ the same." Tai commented once he saw his reflection. He stared at himself in the mirror for a moment and then sighed. "I hate Mondays."

* * *

Tai walked to school slowly. He had left way too early and he didn't want to be the first to get to the stop sign. Despite his best efforts to drag his feet, he arrived at his destination twenty minutes earlier than usual. Izzy wasn't there yet and of course Matt wasn't. Matt didn't come to school early. Tai looked around, it didn't seem like there were any students around yet. Suddenly it dawned on Tai that it was way too quiet. Something was missing. He looked around and realized that there were hardly any cars. To his astonishment, he realized he could actually cross the street without getting run over. The realization of this fact made him stand completely still, as if he was worried that when he moved the mirage of the safe intersection would dissolve before his eyes. 

Tai leaned forward, trying to get closer to the street without moving his feet. A dark blue car slowed to a stop in front of him. Tai could see the driver staring at him through the dirty windshield. Tai leaned back to his original posture and looked blankly at the driver. After a moment the driver drove on.

"Twilight Zone…" Tai mumbled under his breath and he began to hum under his breath.

"Tai?"

Tai spun around when he heard his name. Izzy was standing five feet from him with a puzzled expression on his face. "Tai? What are you doing here so early?"

"Izzy!" Tai waved his hand, motioning to the street behind him. "Am I crazy? Or do you see this too?"

Izzy's eyes darted to the street and back to Tai. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"The street!" Tai was now waving both arms. "There aren't any cars! Did you see that one blue one? It Stopped! Stopped, Izzy! Stopped at our stop sign! _Our_ stop sign of death!"

"Well…" Izzy looked worried about Tai's frenzied outburst, "traffic is actually quite light about this time. It will start picking up in about seven minutes."

Tai was quiet for a long time. He crossed his arms and stared down at his shoes, lost in deep thought. Eventually, Tai looked back up at Izzy. "How do you know this?"

"I…" Izzy trailed off. He shuffled his feet and looked slightly embarrassed, "Well, I… Usually I… This is usually the time that I arrive here."

Tai's mouth started to fall open, but he snapped it shut. "Wait… this is… you usually get here at this time?" Izzy nodded.

"Everyday?" Tai asked in disbelief. Izzy nodded. "Then why don't you ever cross? I mean… there aren't any cars."

Izzy shrugged, "I wait for you and Matt."

"_Why_? We're always late… and you could be on time without us." Tai was trying to understand, but nothing seemed to be clicking. Izzy didn't answer right away. He furrowed his brow in contemplation.

"You never remember your homework," He finally said.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You always forget what's due on which day. The morning is the only time I have to remind you… Also, you and Matt always decide where you are going to eat lunch while we're standing here. If I wasn't here, you probably would forget to tell me…. And I like to hear what everyone has been doing lately. Kari, TK and everyone else… I don't have frequent contact with them, unless they are having trouble with homework. I get to hear how everyone is doing when I talk to the two of you…. And outside of having a few classes together and lunch, this is the only time we see each other. We don't spend time together like we used to."

Tai opened his mouth to say something, but Izzy cut him off. "I don't mean it as something for you to worry about. We're all getting older and we're different people who can't spend a lot of time together because we're so busy with our own activities. It's not your fault or anything like that."

Izzy sighed and looked at the floor, worrying that he had said too much. Tai didn't say anything for a long while. Behind him, the traffic began picking up and more cars began to blow off the stop sign.

"Izzy," Tai finally said. Izzy looked up at him, looking slightly worried. "We need to take a road trip."

"W-what?" Izzy stammered in disbelief.

"This summer we are taking a road trip. Me, you and… well, maybe not Matt, he could possibly still be grounded. Me, you, TK and anyone else we can get. OK?"

Izzy blinked, "Why a road trip?"

"Why not?" Tai countered. Izzy looked surprised. Then a smile crept onto his face.

"I suppose a road trip could be most satisfactory."

"Yeah, and it's going to be cool too." Tai then began to rattle on about the places they would visit. A few of which, Izzy had to remind him, were impossible to get to by car.

"Okinawa isn't a part of mainland Japan, Tai. We can't _drive_ there."

"Why not?"

"The ocean slows down most cars."

Time passed quickly in this fashion. Tai didn't even notice how late it was until Izzy mentioned it.

"The first bell rings in two minutes. Matt is really late."

Tai actually jerked in surprise. "Is it really already that late? Where the heck is Matt?"

"Usually he arrives about five minutes earlier than this. However, lately he has been a bit erratic."

"He should have been here by now. His dad will probably kill him if he's late."

"Perhaps he's skipping school. Did he happen to mention to you that he might be missing school today?"

"No."

"He didn't call?"

"No… well, yeah, but no… I mean… I thought he was feeling better about the rumors and everything. If he's skipping… he's not that stupid. He wouldn't. There's no way. He knows his father would be pissed. He wouldn't… damn it, Matt; your dad's going to kill you." Tai glared down the street as if trying to force Matt to appear with his fierce stare. After another minute with no appearance of Matt, Tai stamped his foot in frustration. "That's it. I'm not letting him get grounded for eternity. I'm going to go and get him. Izzy!" Tai snapped his head towards his friend, "Cover for me. Pull a fire alarm."

"Tai, I can't…"

"Fine, then just lie to a couple teachers for me. Make something up that could get both of us out of trouble… nothing too dramatic… Matt won't like that." Tai grabbed Izzy by the shoulders in an attempt to show the seriousness of the situation. "I leave this up to you. Hopefully, I will see you later. We'll have lunch in our history room. Good luck. Don't get hit by a car." Tai then turned briskly and began to walk away. He got about ten steps before he turned to look back. Izzy was still standing in the same spot.

"Where is Fiji exactly?"

"We can't road trip to Fiji, Tai."

"Shoot."

* * *

Despite the fact that it was probably dangerous, the Ishidas kept a spare key outside of their apartment door. It was on top of the fire extinguisher in the hallway and its location was only known to five people: Matt, TK, Matt's parents and Tai. No one liked the idea of a stranger finding the key and then breaking into the apartment, but Matt and his father had the habit of locking themselves out. They did it quite frequently actually. Matt's father had put the key in its place right after he had locked himself out one morning… while only wearing his boxers. Tai now used the spare key to open the door. He didn't bother knocking, there was no need to since Matt's dad would be at work. 

"Matt!" Tai called as soon as he was inside. He shut the door behind him. "Matt! Where are you?" There was no response. Tai moved through the apartment quickly. He found Matt's door shut. He knocked and called his friend's name again. When he got no response, he opened the door.

Matt's room was a mess. Books and papers were scattered around the room. Matt's school bag was in a chair with the contents spilling out onto the floor. Matt's stereo was gone; in its place was a laundry basket full of clothes. His bed was covered in clothes. It looked as if his entire closet and dresser had been emptied out onto the mattress.

"Matt?" Tai called, worry beginning to seep into his voice. He then noticed that Matt's bathroom door was slightly ajar. He dropped his own school bag among the mess and walked quickly to the bathroom and pushed the door open the rest of the way.

Tai gasped. He couldn't help himself. His best friend was lying on the bathroom floor in his pajamas, his head right next to the toilet, looking as pale as the porcelain by his face.

"Matt?" Tai rushed forward and knelt by his friend. Matt stirred, turning his head towards Tai but not opening his eyes.

"Matt, what happened?" Tai asked frantically. Matt's eyes fluttered open.

"Tai?" He asked in a raspy voice. "What… what the hell are you doing here?" he mumbled.

"I thought you were ditching school. What the hell are _you_ doing on your bathroom floor?"

Matt glanced around the small room as if he wasn't sure. "I fell asleep." He stated quietly.

"You fell asleep? On the floor? Why? What happened? Does your dad know you're like this?"

Matt put his bandaged hand over his face and groaned. "Tai, shut up for a second."

Tai looked slightly offended, but did as he was told. Matt took a deep breath. "I've been puking since early this morning, alright?" Matt took his hand away and looked at Tai.

"Why?" Tai asked quietly, trying to comply with his friend's request to shut up, but at the same time unable to restrain his curiosity.

"I haven't been cooking. I was too angry to cook anything for dad all weekend. Dad actually tried to cook dinner last night. He asked me to come eat, but I wouldn't. He put whatever he had made in the fridge and then just left. He was mad, he wanted to get away from me and I wanted him to get away…. He came home late and went to bed. I was really hungry, so I snuck out of my room and ate whatever it was in the fridge…" Matt swallowed. "I started throwing up a few hours later."

"What the hell did you eat?"

"I'm not sure," Matt swallowed again.

"You're not sure?" Tai asked in disbelief.

"Dad's cooking never looks like anything."

"He didn't notice you this morning?" Tai asked with concern.

"No." Matt rolled onto his side facing away from Tai, though it seemed like the action physically hurt him. "I lied to him. Told him I was going to school and he didn't need to shove me out the door early this morning."

"But he would only need to see you… You look like crap."

"He just spoke to me through the door. He's been staying out of my room. He can't stand the mess." Matt was trying to sit up now, but he looked like he was having trouble pulling himself to a sitting position. Tai quickly leaned forward to help. He placed a hand on Matt's back to support him. Tai's expression grew more worried.

"You have a fever, Matt."

Matt grunted in response and leaned away from Tai against the bathroom wall. He leaned his forehead against the cool tiles.

"Don't worry about it," He muttered with his eyes shut. Tai took a deep breath.

"I'm going to call your dad."

"No," Matt said snapping his eyes open.

"Matt, your dad should know…"

"No way, he'll probably think I'm faking. Then he'll come home and see I'm not faking and I have no idea why, but I'm sure he'll find a reason to yell at me."

"You're being ridiculous. I'm going to blame the fever and the Twilight Zone influence. I'm calling your dad." Tai began to stand up.

"Don't you dare," Matt said as menacingly as he could in his feeble position.

"Your Mom, then." Tai said smugly, knowing the response to this before he even said it. Matt's eyes widened and Tai thought he was going to argue, but then noticed that he had suddenly paled even more.

Matt jerked himself back to the toilet and began throwing up. Tai's first reaction was to leave the room. He stepped out awkwardly, but then he realized he wasn't being a good friend and stepped back into the bathroom. He then realized he had no idea what to do. He looked around for something helpful, but had no idea what he was looking for.

Tai edged closer to Matt slowly, hoping that the vomiting would stop before he could cross the tiny room. It didn't. He knelt by Matt's side as Matt continued retching. Tai placed a hand on Matt's back, but didn't really know if that was helping. He tried his best not to look bothered by the sheer amount of puke that was coming from his friend. Matt soon started spitting, an action that assumedly meant he was almost done. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and then tried to let himself collapse to the floor. However, Tai caught him halfway. Tai didn't care how sick he was, the floor couldn't possible be comfortable and even worse was the thought that no one had probably cleaned that floor within the past five years. Tai wrapped one arm around Matt to keep him sitting up and used his free hand to flush the toilet.

Tai was seriously worried now. He didn't know what to do. He had never taken care of anyone. He didn't even take care of _himself_ when he got sick; he left it up to his mother to do that. Kari had been sick off and on when they were kids, but Tai had never been really great at taking care of her. _I need an adult_, he thought to himself. His worries were interrupted by Matt.

"Tai, please don't call my parents… promise me you won't." Matt was leaning against Tai's shoulder and Tai could feel the heat coming off of him in waves. Matt hated relying on people and he never asked for favors. _I might regret this later_, a quiet voice said in the back of Tai's mind.

"OK, I promise…. I won't call them."

To be continued…..

A/N: I hope I didn't disappoint anyone with this part of the story.

This part was not so funny… I still tried to make Tai humorous, but to be quite honest: I'm an angst girl at heart. I love angsty stuff…But I try to keep a balance in my writing. The next part will be more humorous. I promise.

BTW: Oh yeah, the road trip idea is actually the next digimon plot bunny I might be tackling.

**Kanarah J**: The dialogue appreciates the hugs. Thank you.

**Martiny**: LOL. Actually, you're not too far off about the "next sequel."

**Durithyll**: Thank you. I agree; that's why I wrote this friendship fic.

**Cloud Wolf**: Thanks, I hope you enjoyed this part as well.

**Ryuu-tatkahashi**: LOL. No, I guess it's not a super big deal as she is not paralyzed. Consider Matt to just be having an ultra sensitive moment.

**Little Lommy**: OK, _now_ Matt is at the end of his tether. Glad you like Tai.

**Tails-Coyote-Carnivore**: I completely understand if you didn't like this part. The next one will be funnier. I promise.

Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing!


	7. A Difficult Time

A/N: I am overwhelmed with reviews. I'm not used to getting so many… you guys are spoiling me. Thank you.

Just a few notes to my readers/reviewers:

Yes this is h/c that is not slash. I LOVE h/c fics. If anyone knows of any good h/c fics that aren't mushy romance fics, I would love to hear about them.

Matt's father did not poison Matt on purpose, but I find that idea humorous.

This story will continue on and it will have an ending, I promise.

Thank you everyone! On with the story.

**A Difficult Time**

"Don't you think you would be more comfortable in bed?" Tai had been sitting with Matt for a long time. It had been very quiet. Tai was wracking his brain trying to figure out what he should do and Matt was so sick that he allowed himself to rest on Tai's shoulder. Eventually, after Matt was feeling less nauseous, he tried to lie back down on the floor, but Tai was tugging the back of his shirt insistently.

"Your bed has got to be more comfortable than the floor, Matt."

"There's stuff all over my bed," Matt mumbled as he feebly tried to smack Tai's hand away from his back.

"Yeah, I saw that," Tai said, remembering the mass of laundry that he had seen when he walked into Matt's room. "Why is that?" Tai asked, letting go of Matt's shirt so that his friend would stop trying to hit him. Matt sighed and curled up into a ball.

"I don't want to talk about it," he muttered with his eyes closed. Tai studied him for a moment and then stood up.

"Well, I can throw everything off your bed…"

"Don't bother. That's all I need is to puke all over my room," Matt swallowed hard and shuddered.

"Fine…I'll be right back. I'm going to call someone."

"Tai, you promised…"

"I'm not going to call your parents, don't worry. I have to call Izzy though. He should know what's going on." Tai left the bathroom and walked over to where he had thrown his school bag. A few moments later he was dialing Izzy's cell. It went straight to voicemail.

"Izzy! This is Tai. Matt's sick. Call me back when you get this." Tai quickly punched in another number.

"You've reached Joe Kido. I'm sorry I missed your call…"

Tai groaned in frustration while Joe's voicemail went on apologetically. He waited impatiently for the beep. "Joe, I need help. Why are you so hard to get a hold of? Call me back. It's sort of an emergency… This is Tai by the way." Tai hung up and stared at his cell for a moment. Izzy was probably in class by now and Joe was probably off taking a test somewhere. Tai heard a sound and turned to see that Matt had shut the bathroom door.

"Matt?" Tai asked. He began to step forward when his phone rang in his hand. Izzy's number was on the screen. Tai hit the answer button and thrust the phone to his ear. "Izzy?"

"Tai? What's going on?"

"Did you get my message? Matt's really sick and I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I tried calling Joe, but all I got was his voicemail. He's good with all the health-medical crap. He used to be so reliable! What the hell happened? He never answers his phone!"

"Tai…"

"I've never taken care of anyone! What am I going to do? I mean, I've never seen someone puke that much."

"Tai…"

"It was like that movie, that one with the girl and she's possessed or whatever and she pukes up green. Well, Matt's wasn't really green… Not that I looked. Ugh, was I supposed to notice what color it was? That's so gross. Boogers are like that aren't they? It's bad if they're a darker color. I think that's what my mom said. Man, I don't know what I'm doing! I-"

"Tai! Calm down and listen to me!" Izzy near-shouted into the phone. Tai, not used to hearing Izzy raise his voice, fell silent immediately. "Tai, take a breath," Izzy instructed. Tai did as he was told, he hadn't realized that he hadn't been breathing, but apparently Izzy had. "Are _you_ alright?" Izzy asked, speaking slowly and clearly. Tai paused for a moment, he then realized he was feeling frantic and stressed and Izzy was picking up on it.

"Yes," Tai answered, trying to sound as calm as Izzy.

"Good. You need to stay calm, alright?"

"Right," Tai sunk to Matt's cluttered floor and tried to relax as he sat on a pile of Matt's socks.

"Right. Now I do not have a lot of time; I told the teacher I was using the restroom. I need you to stay calm and just tell me what happened."

Tai quickly described finding Matt curled up on his bathroom floor and the barfing that occurred afterwards.

"How long has this been going on?"

"Since early this morning I guess."

"Does he have a fever?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what it is?"

"…No."

"That's alright. Headache? Weakness? Abdominal cramps?"

"Maybe. I think so… abominable…?"

"Is he having stomach pain, Tai?"

"He doesn't seem to be fond of sitting up or moving, so I guess so."

"Diarrhea?"

"Um… I don't know… hang on." Tai stood back up and walked to the bathroom door. He knocked on it loudly. "Hey, Matt!" Tai called through the door, "Um… Izzy wants to know if you've been…uh… having diarrhea." Tai listened for a response, but none came. "Matt?" he reached to try the knob.

"Tai, I really don't want to talk about that."

Tai took his hand from the knob. "So, is that what's going on right now? Is that why you shut the door?"

"Tai, I swear I'm going to kill-" Matt's threat was caught off and Tai heard him retching.

"I think that's a 'yes' for the diarrhea thing… and I think he's puking again," Tai said into the phone. "What should I do?"

"He needs to avoid becoming dehydrated. He needs to drink, Tai."

"Like what?"

"Try water. He needs to replace the electrolytes in his system."

"Just water? What's an… elec…electrode…?"

"Electro_lytes_. Water is best for now. He needs to keep it down though. If he can't keep anything down, then he's going to need to go to the doctor's…"

"But I told him I wouldn't tell his parents…"

Izzy continued as if Tai hadn't spoken. "Check his temperature. It needs to stay below 101 degrees or he will need to go see someone for it."

"But I can't take him, I don't know anything about that."

"Tai, I have to go back to class. Keep calling Joe. He'll answer eventually. You'll be fine, just remember: stay calm, water and keep his fever down."

"What if it's not enough and he does need to go to the doctor's? I promised…" Tai said pleadingly into the phone.

"Tai, you need to figure out what's actually important here. I have to go. Don't worry, you can do this, it's not difficult. I'll call you back later." There was a beep and then nothing. Tai felt a moment of panic. Everything that Izzy had told him seemed to be slipping away from his mind… _fever… diarrhea… electrites…boogers…_ No, that was something he had said…

"Water," Tai said allowed. He pocketed his phone and hurried towards the kitchen, tripping over an empty wastebasket on his way out. Being a person who visited the Ishida household often, Tai knew the location of all the important things, particularly things that were related to eating. He found a glass that was most likely clean in the dishwasher, and quickly filled it with water from the tap. Tai then walked briskly back to the room, trying not to spill.

The door was still shut when he arrived. After a moment's hesitation, Tai tapped his knuckles on it.

"Matt? Um… can I come in? I have… water." Tai listened for a response. "Matt?"

"No." Matt sounded like he was trying to be firm, but really he sounded pretty weak.

"Matt…"

"Tai, I swear… just let me die."

"You're not dieing, Matt."

"Feels like I am."

"Ah, come on Matt." Tai began to open the door.

"Don't come in here!" Matt said loudly. Tai jerked away in surprise and spilled some of the contents of the glass.

"What? Why not?" Tai asked, as he looked to see how much water was now soaking into the carpet.

"Wait…"

"Matt, come on. I want to help."

"Just wait a minute."

Tai sighed in exasperation and then he heard water running from Matt's shower. Tai tilted his head to the side as he wondered what exactly was going on.

"Matt?" Tai finally asked. "What are you doing?" No response. "Is it alright if I come in?"

"Whatever, I don't care." That was as closest to a yes as Tai was going to get. He opened the door the rest of the way. He studied the room for a minute and then immediately put the glass of water on the edge of the sink. Matt was sitting in his bathtub, fully clothed, with the shower on full blast. His head was leaned against the tiled wall and his eyes were shut. His right arm was dangling over the side of the tub to avoid getting the bandages there wet. Tai stared at his friend with concern and confusion… mostly confusion.

"What are you doing exactly?" He asked. Matt just groaned.

"Matt? What are you doing?"

Matt's eyes flickered open and then closed. "I threw up on my shirt… and in the tub."

"How did you manage that?"

"Can't barf in the toilet if I'm sitting on it."

"Oh…ew. Um… I mean… I'll find you something else to wear." Tai left the room and began rummaging through the pile of clothes on Matt's bed. He quickly found what he hoped was a comfortable pair of flannel pants and a black t-shirt. Tai also grabbed a pair of boxers and socks. He found a towel on Matt's floor. _Hope its clean_, Tai thought.

"Matt? Do you realize you own, like, twenty black shirts?" He asked as he reentered the bathroom. As sick as Matt was, Tai saw him roll his eyes at the comment. He watched as Matt continued not to make any attempt to move out of the shower. Eventually, after Matt obviously wasn't gong to make any effort, Tai reached over and turned the shower off. He set the clothes on the edge of the sink next to the glass of water.

"You should change, you're totally soaked." Matt didn't move. "Unless… you need help?" Tai raised an eyebrow. He already knew the answer to that question. Sick or not, Matt wasn't one to accept help with something as simple as changing clothes.

"I'm not an invalid. Get out, Tai." He said this as he began pulling himself out of the tub. Matt moved slowly and it seemed like the movement was causing him pain.

"Matt, I could actually help…"

"No, Just go. I've got it," Matt said firmly. Tai did as he was told and left the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. He sat down on the floor to wait. He wondered if Matt was going to be OK. With his recent luck, Matt would probably slip and knock himself unconscious in the tub. Tai smiled at the absurdity of the thought… but his smile quickly faded. _What if that did happen?_

"Matt! Are you OK in there?" Matt grunted in response. Tai assumed it was a positive noise. "Are you still naked or can I come in?" Tai could have sworn he _heard_ Matt roll his eyes.

"I'm dressed," Matt answered simply. Tai opened the door to find Matt lying on the floor with the towel over his face. Tai picked up the glass of water from the sink and set it closer to Matt's face in an ineffective attempt to get him to drink it.

Tai jumped when his cell rang in his pocket. Joe's name flashed on the screen. Tai left the room to answer it.

"Joe! Thank God you called me back!"

"Tai, what's going on? You said it was an emergency. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's not me, its Matt, he's really sick."

"What do you mean? How sick, Tai?"

Tai explained everything as Joe listened intently. When he finished, Joe took a deep breath.

"He made you promise not to tell his parents?"

"Yeah… and you can't tell them either! I promised and I don't double cross my friends."

"Tai," Joe sighed again, "I'm not going to tell Matt's parents… But I don't see how this is going to work out. Matt's father is going to find out eventually."

"…It's going to work out. Just tell me what I need to do now for Matt," Tai said resolutely. Joe paused and Tai thought he might not help after all. But then…

"Do you have a pen?"

"Why?"

"You're going to need to write this down."

* * *

Tai learned more about food poisoning then he ever wanted to know from Joe. He was sure he would be hearing the term sigmoidoscopy in his nightmares. Joe had pretty much said the same things as Izzy… Only with bigger words and more details behind everything. Matt couldn't eat solid food and he had to drink fluids. If he couldn't even keep water down, then he was screwed. 'Screwed' was Tai's interpretation of Joe's explanation: "If he is unable to drink due to the nausea or vomiting he might need medical attention and intravenous fluids..."

Joe even gave Tai a recipe for a rehydration drink that involved water, baking soda, salt and sugar.

"That sounds nasty. He's not going to drink that."

"It's just in case. Did you write it down?"

"Yeah," Tai had written down the whole recipe, but he doubted the Ishida household even had baking soda in it.

Once Tai was finally off the phone with Joe, he looked at the scrap piece of paper he had found on Matt's floor. _Hope this wasn't anything important_, Tai thought as he stared at his scribbled writing all over the unknown paper. Tai wandered back into the bathroom, paper in hand, rereading what he should be doing. Matt was still in his same position on the floor. It didn't look like he had moved at all since Tai had left him there.

Tai took a seat by Matt's towel-shrouded head. After a moment of silence, he reached over and pulled the towel straight up and looked at Matt's face. Matt looked incredibly annoyed.

"You need to drink water," Tai said. "Drink the water, I left it here for you."

"Don't want it," Matt said quietly.

"I just finished listening to Joe talk about bloody stools and describe something where they stick a tube up your ass. You're going to drink this water," Tai quickly changed directions when he glanced down at the paper and remembered something else. "But first I need to take your temperature. Do you have a thermometer?"

"Medicine cabinet," Matt said even though he looked like he wanted to argue. Tai stood and opened up the cabinet above Matt's sink. After rummaging for a while he found a thermometer. He gave it a shake, because he had seen his mother do that, not because he knew what he was doing. Tai leaned over Matt and shoved the thermometer in his mouth.

"Ow," Matt commented.

"Shhh, if you talk, it ruins it."

"You almost choked me."

"No talking."

Tai sat back down and leaned against the wall. It took a moment before he realized he had no idea how long it took for a thermometer to register a temperature. _Crap_. He waited a couple of minutes. He tentatively leaned over Matt, who was trying to rest with his eyes shut.

"Um… So… do you think that's long enough?"

Matt's eyes flew open. "You don' know?" Matt asked. The thermometer under his tongue impeded his speech.

"I'm sure that's long enough." Tai said taking the thermometer out of Matt's mouth. Matt looked annoyed again. Tai stared at the thermometer for a long time. He turned it over in his hands a few times. "Hmmmm…." He said, "Hmmmmmm…."

"Hmmmm… What?" Matt asked. Tai glanced at him and then back at the thermometer.

"How do you read these things anyway?"

Matt put his good hand to his face. "Are you being serious?"

"Well, I've never done it before. Do you know how to read these things?"

"How would I know?"

"It was in _your_ medicine cabinet."

"Dad's usually here if I use it. He reads it for me."

"Well, this isn't going to work…"

"Duh, Tai."

Tai ignored his friend, "Here, drink the water." Tai pushed the water closer to Matt.

"I don't want it."

"Do it or I'm calling your dad." Matt glared at Tai and Tai glared back.

"You promised."

"That was before I found out neither of us can read a thermometer."

Matt reluctantly pulled himself into a sitting position. Tai handed him the water so that he wouldn't have to lift it off the floor. Matt took a few careful sips and then handed it back to Tai, who took it readily. Matt curled back up on the floor.

"Happy?" He muttered.

"Yeah, actually I am… Matt, I can clear off your bed. I'll even find you something to puke in, so you don't have to worry about barfing all over your room."

Matt swallowed. "I don't want to move. I just want to sleep."

Tai was going to argue with him, but Matt looked exhausted and he already seemed to be drifting off. "OK," Tai agreed quietly. He watched as Matt's breathing became more even and his face relaxed. Tai silently moved himself just outside of the open door and stretched himself out on Matt's floor. Watching Matt sleep… it wasn't long before his own eyes started to droop. Before he knew it, Tai fell asleep on Matt's floor.

* * *

Tai woke up when his phone rang. It was Izzy calling to check in. Tai answered, whispering, trying not to wake Matt up. Tai informed Izzy what was going on and he seemed pleased that Tai had spoken with Joe.

"So, is he doing better?"

"I guess… he hasn't puked recently so that's good, right?"

"Is he drinking?"

"Sort of… Hey Izzy can I ask you something?"

"Of course, Tai?"

"Why are there so many words for barfing?"

"…What?"

"Have you ever thought about it? There are like a million words for throwing up."

"No, I have never thought much about it…"

"I mean, there's vomiting, barfing, puking, heaving, upchucking, ralphing, hurling, retching, blowing chunks, losing your lunch, tossing your cookies, bowing to the porcelain throne… and then there's ones like liberating your lunch and…"

"Tai… I am actually trying to eat lunch."

"Really, it's already that late? I must have slept for a while. Am I making you sick?" A light smile appeared on Tai's face, "are you going to barf, vomit, puke, ralph or lose your lunch?" Tai started to laugh, but was cut off by a groan from Matt. Tai hadn't noticed, but Matt was no longer asleep and he had moved his hand to his mouth. He sat up and pulled himself to the toilet.

"Oh, Izzy I gotta go. Matt's about to eject his stomach." Tai hung up his phone just as Matt began (insert your favorite puking word here).

Tai sat by Matt and patted his back, careful not to look directly at the vomit coming out of his friend. It didn't last as long as the first time Tai had seen it happen. When Matt finally stopped, he waved his arm at Tai.

"What's wrong with you?" He gasped.

"What do you mean?" Tai asked innocently.

"Are you trying to make me sick? Why are you talking about food and throwing up food? You're trying to make this worse."

"No, I didn't know you were awake. I'm sorry."

Matt lowered himself back to the floor. "Tai, you kind of suck at this," he muttered. Tai looked crestfallen.

"I know… I'm trying my best though. Really Matt, I am. I'm sorry."

Matt sighed. "Don't get all upset. Just… just ignore me, OK. I'm not in a good mood."

"You got it," Tai cheered up quickly. "As your best friend I'm going to stick by you until you're feeling better."

"Or until your friendship kills me. Whichever one comes first." Matt smiled slightly. Tai grinned back.

* * *

The rest of the day went on quietly. Matt mostly just slept while Tai played games on his cell. Whenever he woke up, Matt would take a few sips of water, he soon finished the whole glass. He hadn't thrown up for a couple of hours, but he refused to leave the bathroom floor. Everything was going fine until Izzy called. Tai answered his phone cheerily.

"Hey Izzy!"

"Tai! I'm so sorry. Is Matt there?"

"Yeah… what's going on?"

"Tell him I'm sorry too. I am so sorry. I will make it up to him I swear."

"Izzy, what are you talking about?" Suddenly there was a loud knock on the door. "Someone's at the door." Tai stated.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" Izzy began stating more frantically. Tai moved out to the living room and stopped five feet from the door. The knocking intensified.

"Izzy, what did you do?"

"It was an accident, it just sort of slipped out…" Izzy gasped for breath.

Tai slowly moved to the door and looked through the peephole. He jumped backwards a foot when he saw who was on the other side.

"Izzy! Why is Sora _here_?"

To be continued….

A/N: This took FOREVER to write! This was one of the longer chapters and the most difficult to write. Man, I'm tired. All you people leaving me reviews make me so nervous. I'm worried I'm going to let everyone down. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. There should be only one more part to this, but you never know.

Leave me some love in a review.


	8. Getting to the Other Side

A/N: Thanks everyone for the reviews! You are amazing people! Ah…. This was supposed to be written a while ago, but I got into a series called Lovely Complex. So far it's the most adorable thing I've ever seen.

OK, on with the story. There will be one more part after this and then that's it.

**Getting to the Other Side**

"She caught me off guard! I didn't tell her on purpose!" Izzy insisted.

"What? How could you have told Sora not on _purpose_?"

"She came up to me after school and just asked me if you would be in school tomorrow. I was in the computer lab and I was distracted… all I said was: 'Most likely, he's not the one who's sick.' Then she just attacked me! She started asking me all of these questions. 'What does that mean, Izzy?' 'Who is sick Izzy?' What don't you want to tell me, Izzy?' 'Is it Matt? Is he sick?' and it just went on and on. She wouldn't stop! She followed me into the boy's bathroom, Tai! It was the most bizarre thing that has ever happened to me. She eventually just left, because she pretty much figured it out on her own … She must have run all the way there, she got there really fast." Izzy paused to take a breath.

Meanwhile, the pounding on the door had ceased and Tai tilted his head to the side as he wondered if Sora had given up. _Please, just let her leave_, Tai thought.

"Matt!" Sora called through the door. "Matt I know you're there!"

Tai swore under his breath. "What does she want, anyway?" He hissed into the phone.

"I don't know. After this week, I don't think I really understand girls at all."

"Matt! Matt! I just want to talk! Izzy told me you're sick today!" Sora continued yelling through the door.

"Technically, I didn't actually _tell_ her that…" Izzy sounded genuinely annoyed. "I didn't tell her hardly anything. She just deduced what happened when I _wouldn't_ say anything."

"Izzy, I'm going to call you back," Tai said quickly into the phone.

"What are you going to do Tai?"

"I don't know yet. I'll talk to you later," Tai snapped his phone shut before Izzy could answer and shoved it into his pocket. He snuck to the door as quietly as he could and glanced through the peephole again. Sora's agitated face was still on the other side. Suddenly it seemed that she knew he was there and she turned to look straight at him. Tai jumped back from the door and stopped himself from letting out an unmanly cry of surprise.

"Tai! Tai, answer the door!" Sora suddenly yelled. Tai fled back towards the living room. He stopped himself just short of hiding behind the couch. _You're not handling this well_, he thought to himself. "Tai! I heard your voice! I know you're there."

_Crap_. Tai slowly moved towards the door. An adult, he had to approach this like an adult… an adult that can't even read a thermometer, but an adult nonetheless. Tai slowly reached for the door knob. His heart skipped a few beats as he unlocked the door, turned the knob and pulled it open a few inches. He shut his eyes for a moment, as if expecting to be struck by something as soon as he opened the door. But when he opened them again he only found Sora, looking bothered, but not particularly violent. Tai cleared his throat and prayed she hadn't noticed that he had answered the door with his eyes squeezed shut, like a three-year old hiding from an imaginary monster.

"Can I help you?" He asked, trying to sound as mature as possible.

"Let me in. I need to talk to Matt," Yes, she was definitely agitated.

"What do you need to speak to Mr. Ishida about?" Tai asked avoiding making eye contact as he stared above her head.

"Tai? What's wrong with you?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Mr. Ishida isn't able to speak right now. May I take a message?"

"Seriously… What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing… I'm just telling you that Matt can't talk right now."

"Can't or won't?"

"Um…. He _can't_ talk right now. Seriously, he's sick; it's not a good idea." Tai met her eyes and immediately felt his ability to be an adult slipping away. When she wanted to, Sora had the power to destroy people with a glare. Well, maybe not destroy people, but she definitely was able to scare the hell out of Tai with it.

"Oh honestly Tai, let me in."

"No way," Tai said.

"Why?"

"Because you… I think you've done enough damage. Don't you think you have?" Tai found that anger was beginning to take the place of his earlier 'adult' attitude.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sora asked as she attempted to look around Tai and into the Ishida apartment.

"What do you think it means?" Tai asked, moving to block her view.

"Look Tai, I just want to talk to him," Sora tried, softening her voice a bit.

"What about?"

"Tai, it really doesn't concern you," Sora said looking straight at him and speaking as if he was a child who couldn't understand something so serious. Tai had always been Sora's friend, but he had decided long ago that on this issue, he was on Matt's side. The situation was becoming exceedingly frustrating and Tai felt himself beginning to break.

"It doesn't concern me? _It doesn't_ _concern_ _me_? Are you _serious_? Yes, it _does_ concern me… because you know… if you come in here and talk to Matt or whatever, he's going to be depressed… and sick… and I'm going to be the one that stays with him making sure he drinks water and doesn't puke on his shirt or get too depressed… because you're hurting him. You are hurting him… Then tomorrow you're going to school and the rumors will change to whatever, because I don't know what you'll tell people about why Matt wasn't in school and then I'm going to be the one that has to listen to it and constantly try to cheer him up because his ex-girlfriend is telling everyone he's a gay, heroine addict who cuts himself. So, yeah, it concerns me. It concerns me a little bit, because when you're done with him, I'm still here and I'm the one that has to pick up the damn pieces." Tai stopped and realized his hands were shaking, he was so angry. He felt that he couldn't catch his breath and even if he did, he worried he might just cry because there was a lump in his throat that had suddenly formed out of nowhere.

"Tai…" Sora began, obviously startled by the outburst of seriousness.

"Crap, what the hell is wrong with me? I've finally lost my mind like the rest of you." Tai moved to shut the door.

"Wait, Tai! Please! Please, I just want to talk to him! Please!" Sora stepped forward and grabbed Tai's arm to stop him from closing the door any farther.

"Go ahead and talk then." Tai whirled around to see Matt standing in the middle of his living room, looking like he might fall over at any moment.

"Matt! I just want to talk to you I swear." Sora let go of Tai's arm and took another step forward. Tai, unsure of what he should do, stood very still. Matt was very pale and his skin had a sickly sheen to it.

"Yeah, I heard that, go ahead then," Matt spoke as firmly as he could in his present state.

"Can't I come in?" Sora asked with a pleading look in her eyes. She began to take a tentative step forward.

"I can hear you fine from there."

"Can I talk to you alone?" Sora's eyes glanced to Tai and then back to Matt. Matt shook his head slightly.

"Tai stays."

"OK, fine. Just hear me out." That pleading look again entered her eyes. Matt nodded to show that he understood.

"I wanted to apologize about the rumors and everything. But I want you to know that it wasn't my fault. It was mostly Mimi…"

"I'm sure you fought really hard to stop her, Sora," Matt did little to hide the venom in his voice.

"Matt please, I know… I didn't mean for the rumors to get so out of control…. I should have done more to stop them and I shouldn't have added to them…. I know that was wrong. I'm so sorry. I'm going to ask Mimi to stop and I'm going to try to set things right with the other students too. Matt, I'm so sorry. I just… I wanted to tell you that and I wanted to ask if there was any way that you could forgive me."

Matt shut his eyes and swayed a bit. For a moment, Tai worried he might collapse.

"I need to think about it," he nearly whispered. Sora seemed shocked.

"But-but how could you say that? I'm _sorry_ Matt. I didn't mean to hurt you so much. I was stupid. Haven't you ever done something that you regret? I completely regret what I did. How can you not forgive me?"

"I'll forgive you when I can walk down the hallway at school without people pointing at me."

"You're not being fair at all! You haven't even apologized to me about anything and so I thought I should come to apologize first! Then you say you have to _think_ about it?" Large judgmental tears began to run down Sora's face.

"I really can't do this right now with you Sora," Matt whispered.

"How could you do this to me?" Sora then clasped her hands over her face and began sobbing hysterically. Tai took a step back; the whole thing has suddenly become worse then a soap opera. Matt looked down at the floor, seemingly defeated.

Suddenly, quick footsteps were heard in the hallway. The footsteps got louder and louder until a familiar blond appeared in the doorway beside Sora. TK was completely out of breath and his face was bright red. He looked as though he had just run a great distance. He paused for a moment to catch his breath and lean on the door frame. After taking a few gulps of air, he looked at Sora. His expression turned to something mixed with pity and annoyance. TK looked at Tai and then Matt who was staring at the floor and wavering from side to side. TK's expression changed when something caught his eye. A small bead of moisture was slowly making its way down Matt's cheek. TK stepped all the way into the apartment, shouldered past Sora and gently pushed Tai completely clear of the door. Sora was now looking at him, a pleading look in her eyes.

"Get out right now." TK said firmly. Tai blinked in surprise. TK wasn't the kind of person to kick out people, especially crying girls. Sora looked so surprised she had forgotten to sob loudly. "When I am here, this is my home too. I can kick out whomever I want. Get out." TK grabbed her by both shoulders and gently pushed her out of the room. If she hadn't been so shocked she might have resisted. Once she was in the hallway, TK reached to close the door.

"W-Wait," Sora stammered.

"Go home, Sora." TK shut the door with finality. He locked the door, turned around and walked straight over to Matt. Tai stayed rooted to his spot, trying to process what had just happened. He saw TK speaking quietly to Matt and Matt was nodding at something TK was saying. TK put his hand on Matt's arm to stop him from swaying. "Come on, Matt." Tai heard TK say. Then he very carefully led his brother back to his room. Tai, unsure of what to do, followed them.

"Tai, do you think you could help me clear off his bed?"

"He didn't want to sleep in his bed; he said he didn't want to throw up in his room," Tai said quietly.

"We'll get him a bucket or something," TK said as he began shoving Matt's clothes off the bed and onto the floor. Tai quickly moved to help while Matt stood in the middle of the room with his eyes shut. After all of Matt's clothes had been dumped on the floor TK grabbed his brother's arm and guided him to the bed. "Lie down," TK commanded gently. Matt did as he was told without protest. TK then pulled a blanket over him and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Tai, you'll probably be able to find a bucket underneath the sink in the kitchen," TK said looking up and smiling slightly at Tai. Tai nodded and left the room. He couldn't help but feel that he was being very gently kicked out. He went ahead and took his time looking for the bucket. If TK needed a moment to talk to Matt, that was fine. After all, he had been able to do what Tai was trying to do all day: Get Matt off the bathroom floor and into his own bed. Well, technically, Sora had played a part in getting Matt off the floor too, but Tai didn't feel like giving her credit for anything at that moment. Once he found the bucket he sighed. _My best try at being an adult has been outdone by a twelve year-old,_ Tai thought with dismay. _The kid can probably read a thermometer too_.

Tai brought the bucket back to the room. When he stepped through the door he found Matt turned on his side facing the wall and TK talking quietly to him. Tai placed the bucket on the floor near the bed.

"How are you feeling, Matt?" Tai asked. Matt didn't answer right away and Tai thought for a moment that he might have fallen asleep.

"I've been better," he answered quietly. TK patted his brother's shoulder sympathetically.

"It can only get better from here Matt," TK assured his brother.

"Well, I don't really see how it can get any worse," Matt answered.

"He's been this charming all day," Tai said to TK. TK nodded and continued to pat Matt's shoulder. "Hey, Matt," Tai decided to switch the subject, "You never told me why your room is covered in your laundry. Didn't you say you'd tell me later?"

"No, I didn't say that."

"Sunday morning Dad got mad at him because his room wasn't clean. So Matt emptied out his closet and dresser and dumped everything all over the room… Then Dad took his stereo away." TK motioned to the basket of laundry that was sitting in place of the stereo.

"Oh, so he called you and told you about it on Sunday, but I don't get to hear about it until right now?"

TK shook his head. "I haven't talked to Matt since Friday. Everything I know, I overheard when Mom was on the phone with Dad." TK looked at Matt, "I _told_ Dad not to take her calls anymore."

Matt suddenly stirred and turned to face TK. "Taking away the stereo was her idea, wasn't it?"

TK shifted uncomfortably, "I… I don't really know."

"You're lying," Matt turned back around to face the wall. "Dad wouldn't have thought of that on his own… she's probably the reason I'm grounded for eternity too. God, my parents…" Matt trailed off.

"They both mean well," TK insisted. Suddenly Tai's phone rang in his pocket. He jumped and rushed to answer it.

"Hey, Izzy."

"Tai! What happened? Is TK there?"

"Yes… I'm going to guess that was your doing then?" Tai stepped out of the room so as not to disturb Matt.

"Well… yeah. I thought he might be able to help. Matt's seems to always be a lot calmer when he's around."

"Yeah, well he's here… he got Sora to leave, Matt to lie in bed and he saved the day; after this I believe he's going to go make world peace, stop global warming and save some pandas."

"Are you upset about this? About TK coming over?"

"No, why would I be upset? You're being ridiculous."

"You had a tone."

"No, I did not… well maybe I did… I just… I am incredibly grateful that he is here, because Matt actually listens to him, but I've been here all day and all I did was get him to drink a glass of water. I really completely sucked at this… and I tried really hard not to."

"Tai, trust me… you did more then just get him to drink a glass of water."

"You think so?"

"Yes, I do."

"Well…thanks Izzy."

"You're very welcome. Now I wanted to tell you: I don't know when Matt's father gets home, but I think you should leave before then, don't you agree?"

"Yeah, I will. Don't worry about it."

"I'll see you tomorrow Tai."

"Bye, see you tomorrow."

"Oh, Tai wait. There are 339 ways."

"There are 339 what?"

"I researched it online earlier and I found 339 words and phrases that refer to throwing up."

"You're a genius Izzy."

"I'm glad I can impress you."

"Bye Izzy," Tai hung up and stared at his phone for a minute. _I think I owe Izzy big time… it's a good thing it's Izzy and he doesn't really realize it._ Tai went back into the room to say his good byes.

"Are you leaving, Tai?" TK asked when he saw Tai picking up his back pack.

"Yeah, I figure it won't be good if your Dad comes home and finds me here… again. And I need to think of something to tell my parents. They're going to find out I skipped school today."

"You can just tell them the truth." TK offered.

"Well, I would… but I promised this one idiot that I would not tell his parents and I think my parents were automatically included in that… since they would have told his parents."

"What?" TK asked.

"Tai, you can go ahead and tell your parents. My Dad's going to find out anyway." Matt said with a sigh.

"OK, if you say so Matt," Tai said quietly. "Well, I'm going to go then. I hope you start feeling better Matt. Call me if you need to, even if it's three in the morning."

Matt rolled over to look at Tai. "You know, I'll probably end up taking you up on that."

"Good, that's what friends are for," Tai smiled and turned to leave.

"Tai?" Matt called after him. Tai turned back around.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about today… and… thanks…for sticking around."

"Anytime Matt."

* * *

TK sat with Matt for the rest of the day. He made sure Matt drank more water and he put a cool wash cloth on his forehead to keep his fever down.

"You're really good at this," Matt said quietly while he was drifting off to sleep. "I bet you can read a thermometer too."

TK looked confused for a second. "The only way I can read a thermometer is if it's one of those newer digital ones. Do you have one of those around?"

"No, but we should get one…" Matt trailed off into sleep.

* * *

Mr. Ishida came home shortly after five. To his surprise he was greeted by his youngest son.

"Hey Dad, how was work? Are you home early?"

"Um… fine and yes I am. What are you doing here, son?"

"I came over to check on Matt. I called over here after school and he answered the phone and said he was sick, so I came over. He's been sick all day. Food poisoning I guess. But you didn't know that, right? Well, Matt's been really sick, he stayed home today. He should have called you, but I guess he was worried you'd be mad. I told him that was silly. I mean it's not like he's faking or anything. He's been puking all day… There's no _reason_ why you would be mad, right Dad? Right?"

"What? Well, of course not. Is he _really_ sick? Do I need to take him to the doctor?" Mr. Ishida was setting his briefcase down and looking worriedly at TK. TK stared at his father for a moment, deciding how best to answer.

"Dad, I'm twelve," he stated simply.

"What?" Mr. Ishida looked confused.

"I don't know, Dad."

"Oh, right, you're twelve… I get it."

"I can't read a thermometer."

"Right, OK. I'll take care of it. Are you staying or heading home or…"

"I've gotta go home. Mom freaks out when I come home late without calling her."

"Right, OK."

"I'll see you later Dad. Take care of Matt for me."

"Right, OK. Bye son."

TK left his father standing in the hall feeling overwhelmed and in need of a moment to process. He loosened his tie and removed his jacket and tossed it over a chair in their dinning room area. He walked to Matt's room and knocked on the door lightly before entering. He tried not to look at the mess that his son had created. Instead he tried to focus on Matt lying sick in his bed. Matt's eyes were closed, but he assumed his son was awake. Matt breathed differently when he was truly asleep.

"Matt," he asked leaning over his son's form. Matt's eyes opened. He really did look sick.

"You're too pale," Mr. Ishida said quietly. "Do you have a fever?"

"Yeah, but I don't know what it is."

"I'll be right back," He said as he got up and walked to his son's bathroom. He came back a moment later with the thermometer. "Here, put this under your tongue." He handed it to Matt and Matt took it, grateful he hadn't shoved it in his mouth as Tai had done. Matt then lay quietly and Mr. Ishida sat down on the edge of his son's bed. The silence carried on for a moment before Matt's father cleared his throat.

"You know," he started, "TK said something about you thinking I would be mad at you." He looked at Matt and Matt's expression seemed worried. "I'm not mad at you Matt." Matt closed his eyes in relief.

"I think it was my fault that you didn't tell me. I can see that now. I've been… hard on you lately. I apologize for that. However, next time something like this happens, you are to call me. No exceptions. Do you understand?"

Matt nodded.

"Good. Let me see this." He pulled the thermometer from Matt's mouth. "Almost 100 degrees... Hmmm, you need to drink more."

"I have been drinking."

"Keep it up then." The room was silent again for a while.

"Dad, can I ask you something?" Matt asked quietly.

"Yes, you can."

"Why do you keep taking Mom's calls?" Matt felt that he shouldn't have asked it, but it was something that had been bothering him for a while. His Dad twirled the thermometer in his hand for a moment before answering.

"Why are you asking me this?" He asked without looking at Matt.

"Because I know TK said you shouldn't and I wouldn't if it was me."

"Fair enough," Mr. Ishida nodded and almost smiled. "I take your mother's calls because I know she worries about you… and because I know that you won't. You don't like talking to her… I understand that, but I also understand that she wants to be a part of your life. Unfortunately, lately the only way she's been doing that is by lecturing me on my crappy parenting skills." Mr. Ishida suddenly began laughing. But Matt looked worried; he didn't really see the humor in this.

"I don't think it's that funny. TK was upset about it earlier. I think he feels caught in the middle," Matt gave his father his most serious look. Mr. Ishida immediately became more somber.

"TK already spoke to me about that. I do plan on speaking to your mother about what she says in front of him. Really though, it's something between her and I. I don't need TK worrying over it and I don't need you worrying over it, OK?"

"OK… Can I ask you something else?"

"Yes."

"Why _aren't_ you mad at me?"

"I don't have a reason to be angry with you Matt."

"That's never stopped you before," Matt widened his eyes at what had just slipped out of his mouth. He hadn't really meant to say that out loud.

"I'm going to ignore that last comment because I know that you know that this is not the same thing as running into traffic or stealing hedge clippers and then slicing open your hand. You didn't get sick on purpose. Also, TK asked me to take care of you… and if he feels like he needs to say that, then maybe I need to reevaluate some things. Your mother thinks I'm too easy on you and she thinks I should be stricter and there should be more consequences for you, because that's what works for her and TK." Mr. Ishida looked at Matt and studied him for a moment. He reached over to check to see if the cloth on Matt's head was still damp and then he continued. "However, I think I have realized that you are not TK and I am not your mother and what works for them doesn't work so well for us. So, I am sorry. From now on I will try not to be influenced so much by her and I will punish you as I see fit. Does that make sense to you?"

"I think so… am I still grounded?" Matt asked hopefully.

"Oh yeah, your mother didn't have much to do with that part."

"Oh… OK. Well… can I have my stereo back?"

"As soon as you're able to put all your clothes back where they belong, yes."

"OK."

"I'm going to get you some more water. Do you need anything else?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Good," Mr. Ishida took Matt's glass from his night stand and rose to leave. He was almost out the door when Matt stopped him.

"Hey Dad?"

"Yes, Matt?"

"I'm sorry about… the hedge clippers and everything."

"Don't worry about it, son. We all make mistakes."

After his father left, Matt closed his eyes and relaxed, _what a weird day_.

To be continued….

A/N: I literally stayed up all night writing this, Please forgive any spelling/grammar errors… I am so tired. Wow, this was one of the longer ones.

BTW, Sorry to any Sora lovers out there. I figured out while I was writing where my inspiration for Sora came from. Everything that she says… she sounds like my sister-in-law. Almost exactly in some places… it wasn't entirely intentional…

Anyway, I wanted Matt's dad to get a moment with Matt, I'm glad I was able to actually write it. OK, THANKS EVERYONE! I expect there to be reviews when I wake up from my nap. So leave me a review!

**Extra note that I have added after reading some of the reviews**: **SORA**- I believe she can be a very wonderful person or else Matt wouldn't care about her the way he does. But I just wanted her to sort of lose it. She knows she is being immature, but she can't stop herself because, quite frankly, she is still immature. Matt is too, that's the reason they have so many problems. In my mind, Sora has her own personal problems and instead of dealing with those things in a straight forward manner, she keeps them hidden and lashes out at those around her. I believe I'm going to briefly touch on that in the next part. I haven't gone into it before this, because this is a very 'boyish' fic. The boys don't really understand what's going on with her, so I don't provide that 'girl' perspective. I think I wanted the reader to feel like they didn't understand her either... since the boys don't understand her in this. I hope that somehow makes sense... Anyway, I apologize if anyone felt that was too unrealistic and maybe it threw off the whole story for them. Thank You.


	9. Seeing Red

A/N: OK, well I had some interesting reviews this time around. Thank you everyone! This part is short and written at 4 in the morning so, as always, don't be too harsh on any grammer/spelling mistakes. The last part was always meant to be a bit shorter. This has been a heck of a journey, but here it is: The last Chapter! Enjoy!

**Seeing Red**

Matt's cell rang insistently from its place on the bedside table. Matt rolled over onto his back, groaning. Without opening his eyes, he reached out his left arm and fumbled blindly for the phone that was vibrating its way towards the edge of the table. Without bothering to check to see who was calling him, he hit the answer button and pressed the cell to his ear.

"What?" He asked groggily.

"Matt?"

"Tai..."

"How… Why are you answering your phone?"

"It rang…" Matt tried to clear his throat.

"But why? Does your dad know?"

"Yeah," Matt coughed when his first attempt to clear his throat didn't work. His sickness had left his throat quite sore. "Dad let me have my cell back."

"Seriously?! THAT'S GREAT!"

"Ow… too loud Tai," his sickness had also left him with a headache.

"Sorry. Man, actually it kind of bites… I wanted to leave you a message. I figured by the time you actually got your phone back it would have about a hundred messages from me. Then you would have to go one by one and delete them all…."

"Why would you do that?"

"I was bored," Tai said with a shrug. "So, when and how did you get your cell back anyway?"

"This morning. Dad said I could have it as long as I'm not on it for too long."

"But it's already four! Why didn't you call me?"

"I've been asleep most of the day."

"Oh, are you still feeling sick?"

"Not really, just tired," Matt tried clearing his throat again, but it did nothing to make his voice stronger.

"So are you coming to school tomorrow?"

"I guess so…"

"Aw, come on Matt. You've already missed three days and it is Thursday tomorrow. Thursdays are awesome."

"Why are Thursdays awesome, Tai?"

"Because… they're right next to Friday and they're perfect days to come back to school."

"…Right… Well, I don't know… I'm not really in a hurry to go back."

"Come on, Matt! School's been a lot better. It's been pretty quiet. There are no new rumors or anything. I think Sora told Mimi to stop… Plus there's a surprise waiting for you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Ha! I can't tell you. You're going to flip over it though."

"Yeah… I'm staying home tomorrow."

"Matt! It's a good surprise, I promise."

"That's what you said about the noodle incident and nobody thought that was a good surprise."

"Matt that happened three years ago."

"They called the fire department…"

"It's not like anyone died."

"You were almost expelled and you almost took me down with you."

"OK, stop talking about the noodle incident. We both agreed not to mention that ever again… and _this_ surprise is nothing like that."

"Will you please just tell me?" Matt sighed.

"No, Izzy and I agreed, you have to see it for yourself."

"Fine, whatever." Matt would have argued more, but he felt too tired.

"Awesome. So I'll see you tomorrow."

"Unfortunately."

"Stop worrying Matt, it's going to be fine. Like I said, the rumors have been a lot better. I think Sora really has been trying to put an end to them."

"You think so?"

"Sure, it's not like anyone else could have stopped Mimi."

"Yeah, maybe you're right. I'll see you tomorrow, Tai."

"Yeah! See you tomorrow!"

Matt hung up his phone and sat it back down on his bedside table. He stared at it for a moment, trying to decide something. He started to reach for it, but stopped himself. Matt took a deep breath and futilely tried to clear his throat again. He then hastily reached over and picked up the cell again. Without hesitation,n he punched in a number. He stared at the phone in his hand while it rang. It rang once… twice… Matt started to hang up, but then he heard a voice answer. Matt cautiously put the phone to his ear.

"Hey Sora…"

* * *

Matt was in absolutely no hurry to get to school and he was literally dragging his feet. He was almost there when he stopped walking completely. Fading rumors or not, he didn't feel like going to school. _Not that that's different from how I usually feel_, Matt thought to himself. He was debating on turning around and heading home for the day, but was stopped in his tracks by an all too familiar voice.

"Matt! There you are!" Matt looked up to see Tai running towards him, waving overenthusiastically. Tai stopped just short of running into Matt. He was gasping for breath, with one hand on his knee and the other grasping Matt's elbow as if he was worried Matt might try to make a run for it.

"I'm so glad I ran into you," Tai said when he caught his breath. He beamed up at Matt happily.

"What do you mean by that? Don't we usually see each other before school?" Matt asked curiously. Tai shrugged and let go of Matt's elbow.

"I was waiting for you at the corner, but then I just thought you were taking too long and I thought I should meet you before you change your mind about coming."

"I told you I was coming to school today."

"Yeah, well sometimes you… aren't always entirely truthful."

"What does that mean?"

"What were you doing right now, standing in the middle of the sidewalk? You looked like you were trying to decide something." Tai looked exceptionally smug as he pointed out his friend's indecisiveness. Matt frowned and gave Tai a glare. Sometimes Matt felt like Tai knew him too well.

"How do you know what I was thinking?" Matt pushed past Tai and began walking in the direction of their school. Tai quickly moved to match his pace.

"Because," Tai said as he trotted alongside his friend, "when you're trying to decide something, you make this face." Tai crossed his eyes and narrowed his eyebrows. Matt kicked him in his calf. "Ow! Hey!" Tai protested, but then began laughing. "I'd give you a fat lip if you didn't already have one."

Matt rolled his eyes, but he absently ran a finger over his bottom lip. "You can't really tell anymore," he said quietly.

"No, you can't," Tai reassured his friend. "Hey," Tai said, suddenly remembering something. "I tried to call your cell this morning, but you didn't answer. What's up with that?"

"Dad took my cell away again." Matt said simply. Tai looked stunned.

"What? Why? You just got it back didn't you?"

"I only could have it if I didn't spend a lot of time on it."

"You're kidding, but I didn't even talk to you for that long!"

"It wasn't because I was talking to you."

"TK?" Tai guessed.

"It's not important, Tai."

"Wait a minute, who _were_ you talking to for so long?" Tai asked, trying to catch Matt's eyes. Matt quickened his pace without looking at Tai. Tai sped up until he was just ahead of Matt, then he whirled around and started walking backwards so that Matt would have to face him. "_Why_ don't you want to tell me?"

"Tai don't walk backwards."

"Tell me, tell me, tell me…"

"Stop that, you're going to run into something."

"No. Tell me, tell me, please tell me…"

"You're being annoying," Matt said, obviously becoming flustered. Tai responded by crossing his eyes and narrowing his eyebrows. "Don't do that!" Matt stopped walking. Tai grinned broadly and stopped walking as well.

"Tell me, Matt tell me, please tell me Matt…" Tai was beginning to turn his chant into some sort of annoying song. Matt closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. He opened them to find Tai staring at him with his eyes crossed.

"I _don't_ make that face."

"Yeah, you're right. You actually do this when you're deciding something." Tai suddenly turned very serious and he closed his eyes and sighed loudly. After a moment of silence, Tai opened his eyes and grinned. Matt stared at him for a moment, he had been ready to protest, but Tai had just perfectly reenacted what Matt had just been doing. "So did you decide to tell me?" Tai asked innocently.

"It was Sora. I was on the phone talking with Sora last night," Matt moved around his surprised friend and continued walking. Tai quickly gathered himself and followed Matt.

"When you say, 'talking with Sora,' do you mean you were fighting with her?"

"No, I mean we _talked_ on the phone last night…. and then the phone got taken away."

"So… how did that go?" Tai asked trying to sound as normal as possible.

"Fine," Matt said simply.

"Fine?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, but did I miss something? Last time I checked, she was at your house crying hysterically and TK had to kick her out."

"Yeah, we talked about that."

Tai waited for Matt to give more details, but he didn't. "So… what… is everything fine now? All that was just…" Tai waved his hand in the air; he didn't really know what to say.

"Sora has her own problems to work out," Matt stated simply.

"So…. Like… are you guys getting back together?" Tai tried to sound nonchalant.

"No… not right now anyway."

"OK," Tai tried not to show his relief. He was looking forward to having a break from any Matt-Sora drama. Tai suddenly clapped his hands. "I almost forgot! The surprise!" Tai turned to Matt excitedly. "Close your eyes Matt."

"No."

"You have to close your eyes! We're almost there!"

"How am I supposed to see where I'm going?"

"I'll lead you."

"Hell no, you'll walk me into a tree or something."

"I won't! I swear! Trust me!" Tai grabbed Matt's elbow again, "Now close your eyes."

Matt sighed, but did as he was told. "I swear if you walk me into a car…"

"…It will be just like a normal day for you."

"Very funny, Tai."

They were only walking for a short time when they turned the corner and onto the sidewalk that led up to their stop sign. Matt could hear the sounds of cars honking and some other rumbling noises that he couldn't identify right away. "Almost there, keep your eyes closed."

Matt suddenly tensed. "Tai, you're not going to try and walk me through the crosswalk are you? We'll both be killed!"

"Keep you eyes shut!" Tai demanded. "Izzy!" Tai called, "look! I found Matt!"

"We only have about two minutes before first bell," Izzy informed Tai.

"That's enough time… OK, two more steps… open your eyes slowly." Tai stepped away from Matt in order to get a better view of his facial expression. Matt's eyes remained closed however. "Matt?" Tai asked, "What are you doing? Open your eyes."

"I'm trying to decide whether I want to," Matt said.

"Just open them."

"Matt, it's really nothing bad. See for yourself." Izzy encouraged. _Well, if Izzy says it's OK, it can't be anything too horrible_. Matt opened his eyes, prepared for the worst. He blinked… and then blinked again. There were _people_ at their corner…. people with orange vests and brightly colored cones. Cars were stopping to stare…

"What are they doing?" Matt asked quietly.

"They're putting in a stop light, Matt." Izzy said softly, as if the moment required some sort of reverence.

"They're putting…." Matt trailed off. He just stared blankly at the workers. Tai looked disappointed. He waved his hand in front of Matt's face.

"Are you OK? I thought you would be happy," Tai said looking at his friend with concern.

"When did they start?" Matt asked, still using a quiet tone.

"Tuesday afternoon, when you were still sick," Izzy explained.

"They're putting in a stop light," Matt mumbled under his breath. Tai gave him a worried look.

"Seriously, are you OK?" Tai looked at Izzy when Matt didn't respond. "The shock was too much for him, go get the school nurse."

Matt suddenly threw both his arms in the air. Tai and Izzy both jumped back simultaneously. "Why didn't they do this last week?! Before the hedge clippers?! Before everything! Before! Before! Why?"

"People are staring, Matt." Tai looked around in amusement. Matt ran a hand threw his hair, making it stick up more than usual. He then put his face in his palm. There was a moment of silence and then his shoulders started shaking.

"He's crying, he's finally snapped," Tai observed. Matt reached out and smacked Tai's arm.

"I'm not crying, moron." Matt was smiling at Tai… not just smiling… Matt was _laughing_. "Can you believe this? The week after… with the hedge clippers and I got grounded… That's awful!" Matt burst out laughing. Tai shrugged and began laughing too. The bell chimed in the background.

"If you two are finished, we're going to be late," Izzy stated bemusedly. Matt's laughter eventually stopped.

"Yeah, I'm done," Matt said with a grin.

"The cars are stopped! Let's cross!" Tai shouted. With that, he grabbed Matt and Izzy by their arms and pulled them into the street.

* * *

**_--Three weeks later--_**

"When is this stupid light going to change?" Tai was furiously pushing the button over and over again. He began tapping his foot impatiently. "Come on light! Change!"

"Just be patient Tai. It will change eventually." Izzy was looking through a travel book while they waited and Matt was standing at the very edge of the sidewalk, looking annoyed.

"This thing better hurry, we're going to be late," Matt said anxiously. He ran his now healed hand through his hair. The stitches were long gone and all that was left was a slightly pink scar that went across his palm.

"Argh, this is so annoying!" Tai groaned.

"It will only be a minute. Here, tell me again where you want to go." Izzy held the travel book out to Tai. Tai looked at it briefly.

"Not Kyoto… I want to go to the beach." Tai flipped a page in the book and pointed something out to Izzy. He tapped the book with his pointer finger. "See, that looks awesome."

"Tai, this isn't part of mainland Japan; we _can't_ take a road trip there."

"You're always so negative," Tai looked disappointed.

"I say we just drive and we end up wherever we end up," Matt stated with his arms crossed.

"We have to have a destination in mind," Izzy said matter-of-factly.

"Why?" Tai asked.

"My parents won't let me go otherwise."

"Oh yeah, mine won't either," Tai said looking disappointed again. "Hey, Matt you're going to be ungrounded next week right?"

"Yeah."

"On Friday, do you want to come over? We can plan our super-awesome-summer road trip." Tai said this as if it was the most persuasive idea in the world.

"I can't do it Friday, maybe Saturday."

"Why not Friday?" Tai whined.

"I told Sora we'd go out to dinner or something."

"OK, fine. Saturday will have to work then. I still want to go to the beach."

"We can go to the beach Tai, just not one that we would have to take a boat or plane to get to." Izzy said with a sigh. The school bell chimed across the street.

"This light isn't changing," Matt shouldered his bag. He met Tai's gaze and Tai gave a slight nod.

"It's probably broken. Want to make a run for it?" Tai asked.

"Wait," Izzy looked up from his book.

"I'm ready if you are," Matt said with a grin.

"OK, after this car." Tai said motioning to an oncoming car. "On the count of three…. One… two…"

"Just wait," Izzy pleaded.

"Three!" Tai grabbed Izzy by the arm and pulled him into the street as Matt took off a few steps ahead of them. "Run!" Tai yelled. With that, the three boys ran full speed through the crosswalk. Tai ended up throwing his backpack at Matt to slow him down and Matt attempted to trip Tai when he got too close. A car honked at them and they all screamed in unison and then laughed loudly at each other. When they made it to the other side they were all slightly winded. Still laughing, they began walking to class.

"I'm so glad they put in a stop light," Tai said with a grin. Matt grinned back at him.

"Yeah, me too."

THE END……!

A/N: 104 pages, my friends. This story was a lot longer than I thought it would be. While I was writing this part I decided not to include Sora too much. I felt like this fic started with the boys and it should end with them too.

This fic will always have a special place in my heart. It is what I was writing when my grandmother died, when my parakeet died, when I finished school and when my cat died. A lot of things died while I was writing this. Being able to write was something I will always remember, I think it actually helped me get through a lot of stuff.

Anyway, thank you all my wonderful reviewers! You are all so great and perfect. I'm deeply touched by your words and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this and putting up with me.

I have a few more Digimon fanfictions in mind. I have an idea for a one-shot and then two longer stories. All three focus around the boys and friendship. The Road Trip story is definitely going to happen; I hope you all read that one when I write it. Thank you again.


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